Forget flavour, texture’s transforming confectionery

Confectionery texture innovation: Overview

• Texture is becoming confectionery’s key differentiator beyond flavour alone
• Sugar reduction increasingly challenges texture, consistency, structure and mouthfeel
• Functional ingredients require precise formulation without compromising consumer enjoyment
• AI accelerates texture optimisation through predictive formulation and modelling
• Future confectionery success depends on engineering distinctive sensory experiences

What if the next big confectionery innovation isn’t a flavour, but a feeling?

From ultra-crunchy chocolate inclusions to multi-layered gummies, texture is fast becoming the industry’s most exciting and creative battleground.

But crafting the perfect bite’s about much more than adding crunch or chew.

Texture takes centre stage

“Adding, removing or replacing an ingredient isn’t simply about achieving a nutritional target, it’s about maintaining the overall sensory experience consumers expect,” says Alisia Heath, vice president of research and development at food-tech company NotCo.

The importance of getting texture right is not only driving reformulation efforts, but also reshaping how brands approach innovation.

“We see significant opportunities for texture to play an even greater role in how consumers experience confectionery,” says Jim Carr, application director of beverage and confectionery at Tate & Lyle.

Multi-layered mouthfeel, he says, is gaining particular attention as confectionery brands explore ways to combine contrasting sensations within a single product.

But, while brands are using texture to create more exciting eating experiences, they’re also relying on it to overcome formulation challenges.

Sugar reduction changes everything

Few ingredients do more in confectionery than sugar. It doesn’t just provide sweetness, it helps shape texture, build structure, preserve shelf life and deliver the sensory experience that defines the final product.

The challenge is particularly evident in gummies, where characteristics such as chewiness, bounce, stickiness and dissolvability must be carefully balanced.

These characteristics, says Tate & Lyle’s Carr, are closely connected, and changes to one can dramatically influence the overall eating experience.

“The key is to approach formulation as an interconnected system rather than focusing on a single ingredient or nutritional objective in isolation.”

That level of formulation precision is becoming increasingly important as manufacturers incorporate functional ingredients into confectionery products.

Functional confectionery texture

As consumers increasingly seek products offering additional health benefits, manufacturers are under pressure to incorporate fibre, protein and other functional ingredients without sacrificing indulgence.

For NotCo’s Heath, this creates opportunities for the industry as it strives to meet modern consumer demands.

“We see this as an opportunity to move towards more precise formulation, where scientists can work towards multiple objectives simultaneously rather than repeatedly adjusting one variable at a time,” she explains. “Ultimately, the goal is to deliver products that meet evolving consumer needs without asking them to compromise on enjoyment.”

Meeting multiple formulation objectives simultaneously is also driving interest in one of the industry’s fastest-growing innovation tools – artificial intelligence.

AI’s essential role

Artificial intelligence is rapidly emerging as one of the most transformative forces in confectionery innovation, giving manufacturers new ways to predict, design and optimise texture with unprecedented speed and precision.

Traditionally, creating the perfect crunch, chew or melt required extensive formulation work, repeated trials and months of sensory testing. Today, AI’s helping developers model how ingredients interact, predict textural outcomes before products reach the pilot plant, and identify reformulation opportunities that might otherwise have taken years to uncover.

And the technology is becoming even more valuable as formulations become even more complex.

Replacing sugar, introducing protein, adding fibre or incorporating alternative ingredients often creates unintended consequences for mouthfeel and structure. AI can help navigate these trade-offs, enabling manufacturers to preserve the sensory experience consumers expect while meeting nutritional and sustainability goals. And this is only the beginning.

“AI can fundamentally change the process,” says NotCo’s Heath.

As machine learning models become more sophisticated and ingredient databases expand, AI could fundamentally change how confectionery products are developed, shifting innovation from a process of trial and error to one driven by predictive design.

The result could be a future where manufacturers are not simply reacting to texture challenges, but engineering entirely new sensory experiences from the outset. For an industry increasingly focused on differentiation, that may prove to be the biggest texture breakthrough of all.

“We’re moving from reactive refinement to genuinely predictive formulation, and that changes the speed, confidence and creativity with which R&D teams can work,” says Heath.

Though she stresses that human expertise remains indispensable.

“AI doesn’t replace food scientists,” she says. “Human expertise remains essential to define the desired sensory experience, interpret results and validate formulations in real-world conditions. The greatest value comes from combining predictive technology with scientific expertise.”

The next generation of confectionery

As sugar reduction, functional needs and next-generation ingredients reshape confectionery innovation, the industry’s challenge is no longer simply what products taste like, but how they feel.

For manufacturers, that means elevating texture from a product attribute to a strategic driver of innovation. The ability to engineer crunch, chew, melt and mouthfeel with greater precision could prove critical as brands look to stand out in an increasingly crowded market.

And the science behind it is advancing just as quickly. AI, ingredient innovations and next-generation formulation technologies are enabling manufacturers to design and optimise texture with unprecedented precision.

In the race to create the next generation of confectionery, the industry’s biggest breakthrough may not be a new flavour at all. It may be texture.