New products are appearing in this range to boost the variants of flavour, size and consistency of individual pieces, and the addition of other “active ingredients” or forms of carbohydrate. Note, however that many products are similar to everyday jelly confectionery. Typical carbohydrate content ranges from 75–90% by weight (75–90 g/100 g) or 4-6 g per piece.

• Typical sodium content ranges from 150-300mg / 100g, although certain varieties are very low.
• Some varieties contain other active ingredients such as caffeine.
• Some varieties of sports confectionery contain “multiple transportable carbohydrates” — a blend of carbohydrates such as glucose and fructose which are absorbed from the intestine via different transporter molecules (see below).

Sports confectionery should be consumed with water or other dilute fluids, which can separately address hydration needs for the activity. This fluid intake will also reduce the net carbohydrate concentration to reduce the risk of gut upsets.

It is noted that early sports nutrition guidelines warned against consuming concentrated forms of carbohydrate during exercise. However, recent studies have shown that sports gels consumed with water during moderate intensity exercise are well tolerated and provide a similar pattern of carbohydrate delivery and oxidation by the muscle to sports drinks. This is likely to be the case for sports confectionery (see Sports Gel fact sheet).