Confectionery

Confectionery is the term that is generally used to describe the overall sale of sweets and chocolates in the retail sector. In the past there used to be many confectionery shops in the UK but in recent years these have been replaced and most confectionery nowadays is simply sold in supermarkets and in newsagents, for example.

Confectionery can be used to describe any kind of sweet or chocolate product from a premium hand made artisan chocolate product through to a small mass produced bag of jelly sweets that you might buy for a child. In certain countries confectionery will be given a different general name. In the USA, for example, it will be referred to as candy and in Australia as lollies.

Certain other products are often also referred to as confectionery in some countries. So, for example, certain kinds of baked products such as biscuits and decorated cakes may also be called confectionery in some cases. In the past confectioners were often more responsible for creating cakes and biscuits than for creating sweets which may have been a side line for them rather than their primary source of business. This changed over the years as sweets became more popular and widely available.