✅ Carnauba wax is used in products ranging from car waxes to fruit-flavored candies. ❌ However, the outside of gummy candies consists of only 2% carnauba wax, while car waxes typically contain ~30% (and presumably taste quite different).
The popular Gummi Bears are made with carnauba wax, the same ingredient that is found in car polish.Carnauba wax produces a glossy finish and is used in products ranging from automobile waxes to fruit-flavored candies.Origin
For years, rumors have circulated about gummi candies using car wax as an ingredient, a claim that appears most often in listicles about strange ingredients in foodstuffs, but also as a “shocking” reason you shouldn’t eat such candies published on health sites that also carry endless articles about “toxins.”
But what’s the truth? The short answer is yes, Haribo’s popular fruit-flavored Gummi Bears brand candies are finished with carnauba wax, as plainly stated on theAfter a relatively long drying process in drying rooms, the gummies receive a coating of beeswax and carnauba wax to give them a nice sheen and prevent them from sticking together.
The primary ingredients in Gummi Bears are sugar, glucose syrup, starch, flavoring, food coloring, citric acid, and gelatin. In the Haribo candies, carnauba wax — produced from leaves of Brazilian trees that secrete carnauba wax to protect them from the hot sun — finishes off the product with a shiny glaze for aesthetic purposes.In the United States, food product labels must list all ingredients in decreasing order by weight.