Yizhi Konjac (YIZKONJAC) — a global leader in the konjac industry and an innovative force in healthy food ingredients — focused on the upgrading needs of the jelly industry. From the dual dimensions of technical adaptability and health value, it conducted an in-depth analysis of the application advantages of konjac flour, providing jelly enterprises with innovative directions and helping them seize opportunities amid the wave of healthy consumption.

This exploration is driven by two key factors: first, the 2023 revised edition of the National Food Safety Standard for Jelly (GB 19299-2015) was officially released, which expands the jelly form to semi-fluid gel (e.g., squeezable jelly) and sets new requirements for product processes and quality; second, amid the trend of consumption upgrading, consumers’ demand for "healthy attributes" and "taste innovation" in jellies has increased significantly, while the traditional jelly’s issues of high fat, high sugar, and monotonous forms have become increasingly prominent.

I. Technical Adaptability: Breaking Through Traditional Processes to Unlock Innovation Space for Jelly

Konjac glucomannan (KGM), the core component of konjac flour, provides key support for the technological innovation of jellies with its unique physical properties, mainly reflected in three dimensions:

1. Innovative Gel Performance to Meet High-End Product Needs

Jellies made with traditional colloids often face problems such as "insufficient elasticity" and "poor temperature resistance". However, KGM can form a stable, high-elastic three-dimensional network structure in the jelly system, breaking through process limitations. By adjusting the ratio of konjac flour to compound colloids, enterprises can develop two types of high-end products: first, crystal jellies with transparency ≥90%, catering to the demand for aesthetic consumption; second, high-toughness temperature-resistant jellies, suitable for a wider range of storage and transportation scenarios and solving the pain point of traditional jellies being prone to deformation.

2. Optimized Process Efficiency to Reduce Raw Material Loss

High-purity konjac flour (konjac glucomannan content ≥85%) can be directly applied to the sol system without additional filtration steps, greatly reducing raw material loss during filtration — the raw material utilization rate is thus increased to 98%, which not only reduces production costs but also improves production efficiency, especially suitable for large-scale production needs.

3. Support for Form Innovation to Comply with the New National Standard

The new national standard expands the jelly form to semi-fluid gel (e.g., squeezable jelly), and konjac flour can accurately balance the "smoothness" and "chewiness" of jellies: it avoids the overly thin texture of semi-fluid jellies and prevents excessive toughness from affecting the squeezing experience; at the same time, its colloidal structure ensures the efficient release of flavor substances, allowing innovative products such as squeezable jellies and bursting jellies to have both good taste and flavor.

II. Health Value: Responding to Consumption Upgrade to Build Core Product Competitiveness

As healthy consumption becomes mainstream, konjac flour endows jellies with multiple health attributes while optimizing costs and energy consumption, becoming the key to enterprises’ differentiated competition:

1. Increasing Dietary Fiber Content to Enhance Nutritional Attributes

Konjac is one of the plants with the highest purity of soluble dietary fiber in nature, and the purity of its extracted konjac glucomannan ranges from 60% to 95%. Adding konjac flour to jellies can significantly increase the product’s dietary fiber content without the need to add other fiber raw materials, thus meeting consumers’ core demand for "nutritional health".

2. Providing Low-Sugar and Low-Calorie Solutions to Cover Diverse Scenarios

Calorie Control: Konjac flour itself is low in calories. When combined with sugar substitutes such as erythritol, it can be used to develop "sugar-controlled jellies with 50% reduced calories", suitable for people with fat reduction and sugar control needs;

Enhanced Satiety: Konjac glucomannan has a water absorption and swelling ratio of 80-100 times, which can extend the satiety time after consumption. This allows jellies to break out of the category of snack foods and be used in cross-border products such as meal replacement shakes and energy bars, expanding application scenarios.

3. Supporting Functional Extension to Explore Niche Markets

By compounding with functional raw materials, konjac jellies can accurately meet the needs of different groups: adding prebiotics (e.g., fructo-oligosaccharides) can develop gut health jellies; adding electrolytes can create sports nutrition jellies; adding plant protein can adapt to children’s growth jellies — enabling jellies to upgrade from "snack foods" to "functional foods".

4. Optimizing Costs and Energy Consumption to Improve Enterprise Benefits

Raw Material Costs: The addition level of konjac flour in jellies is lower than that of traditional colloids (e.g., carrageenan), which can reduce raw material costs to a certain extent based on comprehensive calculations;
Production Energy Consumption: Konjac flour can form a gel at 40-60°C, achieving 35% energy saving compared with carrageenan (which requires sol formation at above 80°C); at the same time, temperature-resistant konjac flour supports UHT flash sterilization, shortening the process time by 50% compared with traditional pasteurization, which not only reduces energy consumption but also improves production efficiency.

Safety and Basic Properties of Konjac Raw Materials

As a jelly raw material, the safety and properties of konjac are the premise of its application:
Konjac is a perennial herb of the Araceae family. The konjac flour processed from it has the characteristics of "low fat, low calorie, and low sugar", is rich in dietary fiber, and is a food-grade raw material. It can be safely used in food production without safety risks.

Jointly Exploring the 100-Billion-Yuan Healthy Jelly Market

Konjac flour is not only a "technical carrier" for jelly product upgrading but also a "key strategic resource" for enterprises to seize the healthy food track. Currently, the scale of the healthy jelly market is moving toward 100 billion yuan. With 18 years of technical accumulation, 85 core patents, and a global supply chain, Yiz Konjac is willing to empower the industry with technology and coordinate resources, working with partners in the jelly industry to break through traditional limitations, unlock more healthy innovation scenarios, and promote the jelly industry into a new stage of high-quality development.