While on-site at the Sweets & Snacks Expo this past week, Candy Industry Senior Editor and Snack Food & Wholesale Bakery Chief Editor Jenni Spinner talked to Grace Howard, senior brand manager, Mondelēz International, about the brand's new Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish Glow-Ups. Each of the products took one to three years to develop.

The Glow-Ups officially debuted in March, and are the first-ever gummy candy that glows under blacklight. Each Glow Ups candy is layered with special edible confetti that emits a fluorescent glow when under a blacklight due to the use of turmeric extract. While turmeric powers the glow, the extract is completely flavorless.

Liz Parker Kuhn: Is Swedish fish doing anything new?

Grace Howard: We innovate on Swedish fish as well. We also launched a Glow-Ups [for] Swedish Fish. The reason we do that is because of the different taste preferences of consumers. Almost 80% of the category is sweet, and so we want to make sure we're tapping into both the sweet consumers as well as sour consumers. Sour Patch Kids remains one of the leading sour brands.

LPK: We did an interview with you on the Sour Patch Glow-Ups. How is that going?

GH: It's going very well. Consumers love it, retailers love it. It's a really fun and engaging launch for us. We're getting a lot of good feedback on social media, a lot of people talking about it.

LPK: Do you have anything seasonal coming out soon with Sour Patch Kids?

GH: We have a pretty robust seasonal portfolio, and we're continuing to innovate as well. You'll see more coming in future seasons, but it's definitely something that we are focused on ... bringing products to consumers in those moments and for gifting occasions or whatever occasion tied to the season that they're looking for.

LPK: I believe last year you had an Apple Harvest flavor?

GH: Yes, we had Apple Harvest. That's actually one of my favorites Sour Patch Kids' ever—that one's absolutely delicious. So really tapping into those seasonal trends and the flavor profiles that consumers expect to see, but then always putting a little bit of a mischievous spin on it.

Jenni Spinner: I have a question about the Glow-Ups—it glows with the black light, which is super cool. Can you tell us any of the "secret sauce" behind making it?

GH: Sure. So when were thinking, what do we want to launch next for Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish, one of the things we know is that Gen Z consumers in general, and just overall, consumers are looking for more engaging and breakthrough innovation in the candy category. Multi-sensorial has really been a big trend for us. So we were thinking: what can we launch that's unique but also really kind of playful and fun, like our brands are? 

Bringing in that sight sense and taste was something that we saw as an opportunity. We gave a challenge to our R&D team, and they fully delivered. We now have in market a super unique glowing gummy across both brands. It utilizes edible confetti that naturally goes under black light using the turmeric extract—it is on the back of our pack(s), so if consumers are curious when they're at the point of purchase, we do provide that.

LPK: Would Sour Patch Kids or Swedish Fish ever do a freeze-dried product?

GH: We are certainly keeping taps on all of the category industry trends—you guys probably saw that there's a lot of freeze-dried around here (at the Expo). It's something we're aware of and looking into. What we want to make sure we're doing is really delivering something unique to the category, and so a lot of our innovation coming is with that intention in mind.

LPK: Going back to the Glow-Ups—I received a black light from Sour Patch Kids, which was fun.

GH: Yes, it's super engaging and really fun. Consumers are loving it. [On social media], it's doing very well. Not only are people loving that engaging aspect and sort of, experiencing it every time, but also loving the flavor; combining strawberry and watermelon to crowd-pleaser favorites and flavors that we saw coming to life in the beverage category and food, and tapping into those trends, bringing those two together and delivering that really balanced flavor, has been super successful for us. We saw it come to life in our testing, and now we're really seeing it come to life in marketing.

LPK: How long did it take from start to finish to develop it?

GH: It depends on the innovation we're launching, but it can be anywhere from [a year to three years]. This one was sort of somewhere in the middle.

LPK: I didn't know that Swedish Fish also has Glow-Ups. When were those released—same time as Sour Patch Kids Glow-Ups?

GH: Yes, we launched them both in March of this year, and [now are] starting to really see it flowing into the market. It is is the same flavor profile, we just put the edible confetti on the inside of the Swedish Fish [versus] on the sanding on the Sour Patch Kids.

Mondelēz International is on the current Candy Industry “Global Top 100 Candy Companies” list. Click here to view the current “Global Top 100” rankings.