No DramaBuyer guide · Food & candy
Gummy making machine covers everything from a bench depositor to a starch mogul plant, and the kilograms per hour in a quote is usually measured at the largest piece on an easy recipe, so the line may never make your gummy at the rate you paid for.
01
Most Chinese lines deposit into fixed silicone or coated aluminium moulds and eject the pieces. A starch mogul deposits into starch trays and needs a stoving room and dust control, at a far higher listed price. Decide which process your recipe needs first.
A jacketed vacuum kettle suits small batches and frequent recipe changes. A continuous cooker holds solids steadier over a shift. Ask whether final Brix is measured and recorded, or read by hand with a refractometer.
Cam pistons are cheaper and set mechanically. Servo pistons change piece weight on the screen and hold it. Ask nozzles per row, whether the hopper is jacketed, and whether nozzles have suck-back to stop tails.
Pectin sets when acid meets it, so acid goes in just before the hopper; heat-sensitive vitamins too. Count the dosing pumps and ask whether each is metered by flow meter or fixed pump speed.
Silicone releases well but wears; coated aluminium lasts longer but the coating can lift. Ask cavities per plate, plates in circulation, the price of a spare set, and who owns the mould drawings.
Gummies must set before demoulding. Specification tables assume a cool, dry room. If your hall is warmer in summer, the refrigeration quoted may be too small and a longer tunnel changes the footprint.
Listings usually state SUS304. Acidic pectin syrup and cleaning chemicals may justify 316L on hopper, manifold and nozzles. Ask whether the head strips without tools and the cooker has a CIP connection.
02
Chinese depositing lines are often named GD, GDQ or GDT plus a number, usually read as kilograms an hour. Treat it as a family name: one listing showed GDQ150 and GDQ300 at 50 to 100 and 80 to 150 kg/h. Rebuild output from strokes, cavities and your piece weight.
03
Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.
04
| Require this | A pass looks like |
|---|---|
| Cook and deposit your own recipe at the offered stroke rate. Weigh a counted sample of single pieces across the full mould row, early and late in the run. | Every piece inside your weight tolerance, outer nozzles matching the centre ones. |
| Run at least one full hopper cycle and watch the nozzles. | No tails, strings or drips, and no tip build-up that forces a stop. |
| Demould the whole run and count rejects. | Broken, misshapen or stuck pieces are counted in the FAT record and inside the contract limit. |
| For supplement gummies, send start, middle and end samples to a laboratory for active content. | Assay inside label tolerance at all three points, report attached to the FAT record. |
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A tabletop gummy depositor with a separate kettle. Fix the recipe before you size a line.
A starch mogul plant, new or used European, rather than forcing a mould line.
A confectionery technologist first. A dearer line will not rescue a recipe that does not deposit.
07
We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.
08
Every machine we source in this area is on the Food & candy page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.
Straight answers
The process is the same. The difference is depositor precision, recorded recipe control, cleaning design and parts supply. For confectionery a Chinese mould line can be enough. For a supplement gummy, test weight spread and assay first, and price a used European depositor alongside.
Serial numbers against the declaration, contact steel grade, silicone declaration, nozzles and cavities against the offer, guard interlocks at demoulding, your recipe run with weights recorded, and a timed clean-down.
Whether they make depositor heads and moulds in house, and whether their test line can run a pectin recipe, which is harder than gelatin.
A Declaration of Conformity under the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC up to 19 January 2027, and the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 from 20 January 2027, plus 2014/35/EU and 2014/30/EU. A CE mark on a brochure proves nothing.
The company placing it on the EU market. Its name and address go on the machine or documents, and it checks the conformity documentation. Buying direct, that is you.
Supplements are food law, so contact materials follow Regulation (EC) 1935/2004. EU GMP (EudraLex Volume 4) applies only to licensed medicine makers.
Contact
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