If a gummy manufacturer were forced to use only 10% of its current water consumption, the step that would demand the most radical redesign is cleaning. While mixing, cooking, and cooling all use water, cleaning, especially Clean-in-Place (CIP) systems and manual sanitation, accounts for the largest share. In many food and beverage facilities, cleaning process equipment accounts for as much as 50 to 70% of total water use.
Why Cleaning Is the Biggest Challenge
Cleaning involves extensive rinsing, detergent wash cycles, and final sanitization of all equipment between production runs. In gummy manufacturing, this includes:
- Mixing tanks and kettles: These require multiple rinse cycles to remove sticky sugar syrup and gelatin residues.
- Depositor nozzles and molds: Gummy residues cling tightly, needing high-pressure water or soaking.
- Drying tunnels and cooling tunnels: Sugar and starch dust accumulate and must be washed off frequently.
- Floor and conveyor cleaning: Large volumes of water are used for wash-downs to maintain hygiene standards.
Comparison with Other Steps
To illustrate why cleaning is the outlier, here is how the other steps compare under a 90% water reduction:
- Mixing: Water enters the product as an ingredient, and finished gummies typically hold roughly 9-18% water by weight. A 90% reduction would force a complete reformulation, such as higher-solids syrups, but that is a recipe change rather than a process redesign. It is radical but achievable with R&D.
- Cooking: This step uses water primarily for steam generation (to heat kettles) and for cooling jackets. With a 90% cut, manufacturers could switch to electric heating or closed-loop cooling systems that recycle water. The process adjustment is significant but not as disruptive as cleaning.
- Cooling: Cooling tunnels and rooms rely mostly on chilled, dehumidified air, while the chiller plant rejects heat through cooling towers or air-cooled condensers. A water-reduction mandate could be met by shifting to air-cooled chillers and closed-loop recirculation. This is a moderate engineering change.
That ingredient water sets a floor the budget cannot go below. A gummy is a moist confection by definition, so the water bound into the product during mixing cannot be engineered away without changing the product entirely. The 90% cut therefore has to come out of the process and sanitation steps, and cleaning is where most of that water is spent.
The Radical Redesign Required for Cleaning
With only 10% of current water available, cleaning would demand a complete rethink of sanitation protocols. Possible solutions include:
- Advanced dry-cleaning methods: Using compressed air, vacuum systems, or dry steam (which uses very little water) to remove residues before a single, targeted rinse.
- Recycled water loops: Implementing closed-loop CIP systems that filter and reuse rinse water multiple times, but this requires significant capital investment and validation.
- Low-water cleaning agents: Switching to alcohol-based or enzymatic cleaners that require minimal water for activation and rinsing.
- Production schedule redesign: Moving to longer, continuous production runs to drastically reduce cleaning frequency, but this risks microbial growth without adequate sanitation.
- Material substitution: Choosing equipment surfaces and gummy formulas that are less sticky, minimizing water needed for cleaning.
Each of these options represents a fundamental change to standard operating procedures, regulatory compliance (sanitary operations under FDA 21 CFR Part 117), and worker training. No other step in gummy manufacturing requires such a complete reinvention of daily operations to meet a 10% water budget.
Water Constraints in Washington County, Utah
For a gummy manufacturer in southwest Utah, this thought experiment is closer to operating reality than it looks. Washington County is the state's most arid and drought-prone county, and its water comes from the Virgin River watershed, which local water officials describe as prone to drought and insufficient for a population projected to more than double by 2060. Water suppliers in the county deliver about 50,000 acre-feet of potable water a year, and the river is already described as essentially tapped out.
Utah reuses less than 1% of its wastewater statewide, so recycled water can close part of the gap over time, but it does not change the underlying supply limit. A contract manufacturer that cuts cleaning water through dry pre-cleaning, closed-loop CIP, and longer production runs is less exposed to supply limits as the region grows.
Conclusion
Cleaning is the step that would demand the most radical redesign because it consumes the most water and has no low-cost workaround. Sanitation requirements under FDA 21 CFR Part 117 do not relax when water is scarce, so a plant cannot simply wash less and stay compliant. Without changes to sanitation methods, a gummy plant operating on 10% of its normal water could not produce safely or legally.