Confectionery

a food product generally containing a large amount of sugar, having a high caloric content and pleasant taste and smell, and easily assimilated by the body. Ingredients include sugar, syrup, honey, fruits and berries, wheat flour (sometimes oat, soy, corn, or rye flour), milk and butter, fats, starch, cocoa, nuts, eggs, acids, and gelatinizing agents and flavorings which are processed by heat and various mechanical means. The high nutritive value of confectioneries is due to the considerable carbohydrate, fat, and protein content (see Table 1). Many confections are enriched with vitamins.

On the basis of ingredients, methods of production, and final product, confectioneries fall into two main groups: (1) sugar confectionery, including caramels, candies, chocolates, and cocoa, fruit-marmalade sweets, halvah and other Oriental sweets, toffee, and dragée and (2) flour confectionery, including cookies, crackers, galettes, shortbread, wafers, cakes, pastries, and keks (a kind of cake without icing).

Confectioneries preserve their quality for a long period, and for this reason are used as food on trips and hikes and by athletes. There are also dietetic and therapeutic confectioneries, which differ chemically from ordinary confections. In diabetic sweets, the sugar substances are replaced by sorbitol or xylitol. Sweets for anemic patients are enriched with hematogen, a source of iron and whole protein. For those suffering from goiter and as a food supplement for the elderly, confections are enriched with trace elements and Laminaria saccharina, a source of iodine and alginic acid. Coffee is excluded from confectionery for children, and the amount of cocoa is kept to a minimum.