Why do youngsters love gummy bear vitamin candies?

According to financial survey and research group MarketsAndMarkets, the global gummy vitamins market size in 2020 was an estimated USD 5.9 billion. They projected in to grow to USD 10.6 billion by 2025. Vitamin gummy bear sales have gone up so much that many manufacturers are finding it difficult to scale up production. While this is sounding like the beginning of an animation series or mobile game with imaginary animals, it’s all true, and economists are making reports on gummy bears.  

But what are vitamin gummy bears?  
Gummy vitamins are chewable vitamin candies that are shaped like teddy bears and brightly coloured. They are a jelly candy, so it gets sticky unless refrigerated or kept in a cool dry place. Gummy vitamin candies are manufactured by a lot of competing companies in a variety of taste, flavour, colour, size and packaging. The vitamin version, unlike the plain gummy bears, also claim health benefits from consumption, especially for children.  

Who made the first gummy bear?  
Gummy bears originated in the city of Bonn, Germany, where candy maker Hans Riegel Senior made the Gummibär (meaning rubber bear), a very sweet jelly chewy candy shaped like a teddy. He then made the Gummibärchen or little rubber bear and these became a craze. There’s some debate among companies as to who made the first vitamin infused gummy bear candy, but it would be around 2008-09, with ad campaigns getting stronger from 2012. 2019 and 2020 has seen a massive global spurt in vitamin gummies demand.  

Why are vitamin gummies so popular?  
It seems not just kids, but young adults too are preferring vitamin gummy bears to some other vitamin chewable supplements. The reasons for this include busier lifestyles with rising disposable incomes for health, growing awareness regarding preventive healthcare and immunity / vitamins boosting, and vitamin C and D deficiency among kids and young adults. Besides, a packet of vitamin gummy bears cost less than an average bottle of sugar coated or powder coated / marshmallow style vitamin chewable candies. And finally, who doesn’t want food to be less boring in the lockdown?