If you’re a fan of gummy candy – that bright, chewy, flavourful and moreish confection that kids and even some adults can’t seem to get enough of – then chances are you’ve put a Vidal product into your shopping basket on more than one occasion. Those sugar-coated, soft and tasty ‘bananas’ and ‘strawberries’ – they’re Vidal. Peach hearts – also Vidal. From gummy bears and jelly worms to liquorice wheels and pillowy marshmallows, they make it all and have been doing so for over 60 years.
Starting life as a small family-run business in the Spanish town of Molina de Segura in 1963, Vidal has invested in research and development over the years, and now produces over 60 million units of confectionery per year from a manufacturing base of over 210,000 square metres. The company is committed to meeting the needs of all its customers, including its Jewish ones, and has long been a supplier of certified confectionary for the kosher market. But in recent years, they have really upped the ante, dedicating an entire line in the factory for kosher production – when this line is not in use for the manufacturing of hechshered goodies, the equipment is locked away and remains unused for anything else.
Vidal’s kosher line is supervised by the KF and its Director of Certification, Rabbi Y M Guttentag, was pleased to pay his annual visit to the factory recently, along with Kehillas Federation’s Rov and Av Beis Din, Harav Shraga Feivel Zimmerman shlita. Rabbi Guttentag outlined some of the Kashrus challenges involved in certifying products such as Vidal’s. 
“The first obstacle when it comes to producing kosher gummy candies is the gelatine,” he explains. “Gelatine is the main ingredient in these sweets and is mixed with sugars and flavourings at high temperature and under pressure (a process called compounding) to produce them. The kashrus of gelatine is a complex area of halacha, but all are ultimately in agreement that to be kosher, it must come either from a kosher animal that undergone shechita, or from kosher fish. Some fish gelatines are produced on lines that have been used for non-kosher gelatine, or even from non-kosher species of fish such as catfish, so it’s hugely important that we have mashgichim on site.”
Another significant challenge that Kashrus agencies face when it comes to certifying gummy candies are the mould used to produce them.
“If metal moulds were used, they would be simple enough to kasher, but the sweets would stick to the metal and wouldn’t be able to be popped out neatly,” Rabbi Guttentag explains.
To get around this challenge, the industry has developed methods involving bespoke moulds made of corn starch – which obviously can’t be kashered! Huge quantities of starch are used to produce the moulds and they are far from disposable – in general they stay in use for many years at a time. Vidal’s kosher production line completely bypasses the issue, because the corn starch moulds are never used for anything other than 100 percent kosher products.
Of course, when it comes to the work involved in producing and certifiying kosher products such as the Vidal lines, one can’t forget the enormous efforts expended by the mashgichim in ensuring that everything runs smoothly. Molina de Segura, where the Vidal factory is located, is located some 10km outside of the southeastern Spanish city Murcia. There is a tiny Jewish presence in the city, but that notwithstanding, a Mashgiach may find himself on site for weeks, or even months at a time, over Shabbosos and Yomim Tovim and far away from family and home.
Vidal’s slogan is ‘The sweetest life’ and its delicious, enticing candies certainly go a long way to ensuring that. But next time you pop a gummy bear into your mouth, you’ll have a greater understanding as to how much effort it took to reach the shelves of your local kosher store – a sweet story with a happy ending!