A loose scatter of Swedish gummy candy on pale birch wood: pale yellow ovals, sugar-dusted sour diamonds in green and yellow, and red and black skull-shaped gummies

Bubs Godis: The Swedish Skull Makers Who Skipped the Gelatin

September 29, 2026

Bubs, the Swedish maker known for its skull-shaped gummies, makes its candy without gelatin. A conventional gummy gets its bounce from gelatin, a protein made from the collagen in animal skin and bone. Every piece in the Bubs range is vegan, and the soft, springy chew the company calls softsegt på riktigt, soft-chewy for real, is built from sugar, starch and potato protein instead. For the wider tradition of Saturday sweets and pick-and-mix walls, see the Swedish candy guide. This page covers one maker, and what two of its ingredient lists show about holding a gummy together without gelatin.

A family, a mortgage and a first machine

In 1992 a family in Huskvarna, in southern Sweden, mortgaged their house to buy their first candy machine. The name is an acronym of that family's first names: Bernt, Ulrik, Birgitta and Stefan Lindström.

Bubs says it is known for its iconic skull shapes and sweet-sour foam. Three shapes still carry the range: skallar, ovaler and diamanter, or skulls, ovals and diamonds. The skulls sell under the Skalle name and the ovals under the Goody name. The skull is the Bubs signature shape, and the one that fills the bowl in the Swedish Halloween candy guide.

The factory in Jönköping

Bubs's Swedish factory is at Betavägen 4 in Jönköping, at the southern end of Lake Vättern. The company calls the plant one of the most modern factories in the Nordic region, run with robots and driverless trucks and turning out millions of kilos of candy a year. It holds BRC food safety certification. Bubs makes gummies and foam candy, and its Business Sweden profile says it began making chocolate bars and chocolate for pick-and-mix in 2017.

The range reaches shoppers as loose pick-and-mix, sold by weight from bins, and in consumer bags. Business Sweden, the national trade agency, lists the export markets as mainly the Nordic countries, along with Germany, the Netherlands and the United States.

The Orkla sale

On 20 December 2022, the Norwegian food group Orkla announced that its confectionery and snacks business had agreed to buy 100 percent of Bubs Godis AB. The sellers were members of the Lindström family, who founded the company. Bubs then had 55 employees, and Orkla described a production plant adapted for further growth and a portfolio made up mostly of vegan products. CEO Niclas Arnelin, who held a small stake, was to remain in the company.

Orkla Snacks has owned Bubs since 2023. Bubs's product pages name Orkla Snacks Sweden, at Svetsarvägen 15 in Solna outside Stockholm, as the business behind the candy. Production in Sweden stays in Jönköping. The mostly vegan portfolio Orkla bought is now, by the company's own account, entirely vegan.

How a gummy holds together without gelatin

In a conventional gummy or marshmallow, gelatin does two jobs. It gels, turning hot syrup into a springy solid, and it foams, holding air bubbles in place so a candy can be light rather than dense. A vegan gummy needs something else to do both. Avebe, a Dutch supplier of potato proteins and starches based in Veendam, says its potato ingredients completely take over the gelling and foaming functions of gelatin, and names foamed jellies and multi-layered candy among the uses. In trade coverage of the Bubs US launch, Arnelin describes the candy's "signature foam-gummy hybrid texture."

Both products below list corn starch and potato protein. Neither lists gelatin or pectin, and neither contains any animal ingredient. Bubs does not publish which ingredient does which job, and the Avebe page does not name Bubs, so the functions in the table are the typical ones for each ingredient rather than the company's own account.

Two labels, line by line

Bubs publishes these ingredient lists on its Swedish product pages for Tutti Frutti Diamond, a 155 g bag, and Banana Toffee Ovals. They appear here in label order, translated.

Ingredient, in label order	Tutti Frutti Diamond	Banana Toffee Ovals	What it typically does
Sugar	Yes, first	Yes, first	Sweetness and bulk
Glucose syrup	Yes	Yes	Keeps the sugar from crystallizing; keeps the chew soft
Glucose-fructose syrup	Yes	Yes	Sweetness and moisture
Corn starch	Yes	Yes	Most likely the gelling agent, in place of gelatin
Malic acid	Yes	Yes	Sourness
Potato protein	Yes	Yes	Most likely holds air as foam, in place of gelatin
Flavorings	Yes	Yes	Fruit, or banana and toffee
Sodium citrates	Yes	Yes	Acidity regulator; softens the acid's edge
Colors	Copper complexes of chlorophylls and chlorophyllins; curcumin	Sulphite ammonia caramel; curcumin	Green and yellow from plant-derived pigments; in the Ovals, yellow from curcumin with caramel color
Coconut oil	No	Yes	Listed only on the Ovals; likely part of the surface finish
Carnauba wax	No	Yes, as a surface-treatment agent	Typically keeps smooth candies from sticking together

The first eight ingredients are the same in both bags and in the same order, so the two candies share one base. The colors differ, and only the Ovals add coconut oil and carnauba wax, listed as a surface-treatment agent. The Tutti Frutti colors are derived from chlorophyll and from curcumin, the yellow pigment in turmeric. The Banana Toffee's caramel color is the sulphite ammonia type, labeled E150d in the EU.

The bags made for America

Bubs has a second supply chain for the United States. Its US site says the Bubs candy distributed there is made in Mexico, for proximity to the US market. Mount Franklin Foods, a Texas company, holds exclusive rights to make, distribute and sell the brand in the US, and trade reporting dates the start of production for the US market to July 2025. For that range, Bubs states that the products are vegan-friendly, gelatin-free and free of palm oil, high-fructose corn syrup, trans fats and Red 40, and that they are made in a facility free of the nine major allergens.

The Bubs bags, and where they fit

Bubs Tutti Frutti Sour Diamonds (shop Tutti Frutti Sour Diamonds) are the sour pick: tutti frutti is Italian for all the fruits, and malic acid gives the base its sourness. Bubs Goody Ovals in Banana Toffee (shop Goody Ovals in Banana Toffee) are the ones Bubs calls a real best seller and its gula guld, yellow gold, and describes as perfectly soft. Bubs Skalle Sour (shop Bubs Skalle Sour) is the skull in its sour form. The Diamonds and Ovals linked here are the 5.5 oz and 90 g bags, while the labels in the table come from Bubs's Swedish product pages.

For a mix in the style of a Swedish candy shop, Stock Boy Candy Co.'s Bubs mix (shop the Stock Boy Bubs mix) and its sweet mix (shop the Stock Boy Bubs sweet mix) are built around Bubs pieces, as is So Sweet's Bubs mix (shop the So Sweet Bubs mix). BonBon's sour elderflower fish (shop BonBon sour elderflower fish) are another sour gummy.

For the Nordic taste for salt and licorice, see the licorice guide and the Lakrids by Bülow producer guide. The French fruit jelly is a different confection, covered in the pâte de fruit guide. The whole category is covered in the Gummy Candy complete guide.

The Ambrosian Pantry is at 263 Josephine Street in Cherry Creek, Denver, and products ship nationwide from theambrosianpantry.com. Visitors can ask staff questions in the shop. For how candy fits into a Swedish afternoon, see the fika guide.