357 Bulletin UASVM, Agriculture 65(2)/2008 pISSN 1843-5246; eISSN 1843-5386 COMPARATIVES TECHNOLOGIES FOR DIETETIC CANDIES PRODUCTION RacolŃa E., Carmen Socaciu, Mureşan V., Sonia Socaci, Alina Nicula, Marta Hodrea, Teodora Şchiop University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, Cluj-Napoca street Mănăştur nr.3, ROMANIA emil_racolta@yahoo.com. Key words: candy, sugar free, isomalt, natural ingredients Abstract: The production of dietetic candies using isomalt as sugar substitute and some natural ingredients was carried out on a classical technological line with small batch of 25 kg. The caramel mass obtained by replacing sugar with isomalt, was characterized from rheological, sensorial, physical – chemical point of view. The improvement of nutritional value was made by adding natural ingredients on the classical technological line of sugar and glucose syrup candies production by stamping the candy mass. Based on the comparative study of the mentioned parameters, it can be state that the free sugar, but with natural ingredients candies are difficult to produced using the classical technology due to the differences between the rheological and physical – chemical properties of those candies compared with sugar candies. In our study, we produced the caramel mass on the same under vacuum boiling system, but the candy formation was made by casting or extrusion. INTRODUCTION New recipes and technologies are needed in our days in order to obtain functional, dietetic candies, which provide good and necessary replacements for sugar-based sweets. The literature data reveal many possible combinations of plant extracts, honey, propolis or other bee products encapsulated in different matrices in order to protect their flavours, colours and bioactive molecules (1-5). Different recent patents (6-9) present new technologies for preparing candies based on plant extracts, on extrusion or encapsulation. It is well known the fact that the consumption of large quantities of sugar is responsible for a series of metabolic disorders and diseases like diabetes, obesity, arterial hypertension, cardiopathy, so we have to pay a great attention to our alimentation, using natural ingredients and avoiding/replacing sugar. Candies contained a great amount of sugar and they are also a habitude in our alimentation. The present paper proposed the production of sugar free candies, replacing sugar with isomalt and also adding some natural ingredients in candies composition. MATERIAL AND METHODS For the sugar replacement isomalt was used, and the added natural ingredients were: sea-buckthorn extract as filling for filled candies, propolis tincture and medicinal plants extracts (Echinaceea, Melissa, Mǎcieş) for candies, and bread yeast and cinnamon for a candy variety. The isomalt is obtained as follows (fig.1):