According to data from HealthFocus International, reducing sugar intake is the first dietary change consumers have made in the past year. In consumers' view, the best way for food and beverage manufacturers to make their products healthier is to reduce sugar. Under the trend of sugar reduction, which raw materials will lead the next sugar reduction formula in the future? What other fields can tap the potential of sugar reduction?

1 - What kind of sugar reducing products are consumers most concerned about?

ADM research shows that up to 80% of EU consumers are avoiding and reducing sugar intake. For the product side, food and drink are the most important. Ingredion expects that the measures taken by the food and beverage industry to re formulate the sugar reduction method will not slow down. Especially with the continuous increase of sugar consumption and the government's concern about the rising obesity rate, the trend of reducing sugar will become more significant. What products are consumers most concerned about?

Soft Drink

According to the data of UNESCO European soft drinks, the average added sugar in the European soft drinks industry decreased by 3.6% from 2019 to 2021. This trend is spreading to other product categories, such as non-alcoholic beverages. 86% of consumers said that reducing sugar is very important among non-alcoholic beverages.

Alcoholic beverages

In the field of alcoholic beverages, sugar reduction is also gradually emerging. 65% of EU consumers said that sugar reduction of products in supermarket beverage areas is also very important. Among consumers' sugar reduction requirements, the taste ranked first, followed by alcohol content, and calories ranked third. Type of sugar reduced food: ice cream, biscuits, etc

In addition to the beverage sector, sugar reduction in the food sector is also growing. According to the data of Innova, from 2017 to 2021, the compound annual growth rate of ice cream and biscuits containing sugar will be 13% and 14% respectively. It can be seen that all types of products have introduced products claimed to be sugar reduced, low sugar, non added or even zero sugar, even in the most indulgent product categories of consumers, such as ice cream and sweet biscuits.

These are obvious types of sugar reducing products. In addition, if the products with an implicit relationship with sugar are not reduced, they may also face the risk of being criticized by consumers. Condiments are the distinctive representatives.

2 - Who is the next generation of natural sweeteners?

As for the selection of sweeteners, stevia and aloxose have become a new trend.

Stevia: second only to honey

In terms of the choice of sweeteners, checking the cleaning label of the product is one of the main ways for consumers to understand and decide to buy the product. People want to buy products with cleaning labels, but they also prefer natural sweeteners.

Alloketose

In addition, new sweeteners are also expected to mount a larger stage. For example, aloxose is currently being approved by European regulatory authorities through a new food process. In terms of functional innovation, aloxose is a good choice to replace some functions of sugar itself, such as texture, browning reaction, etc. At present, some overseas companies have introduced products with aloxose added.

Chocolates

Cocomels introduced chocolate products with sugar less than 1g this year. 60% of the products are dark chocolate, with aloketose added, and do not contain cholesterol, dairy products, gluten, etc. After using stevia and sugar alcohol, the chocolate company Skinny Dipped added alloketose to its newly launched products.

Drinks

Brooklyn Cannery's launched a prebiotic soda line in July. This series adds a mixture of siraitia grosvenorii, aloctose and erythritol.

Bread

Columbus Keto Treats, a ketone making bread chain owned by Bivens, will replace the sugar in desserts that are not suitable for ketone making with alloketose and erythritol to meet the demand of consumers for ketone making.

With regard to the application of aloketose and stevia in the baking market, the series of articles on sugar substitute raw materials going to the baking market released by Plantlift Bridge are detailed:

Special syrup

In addition, special syrup is becoming a new possibility. Special syrup is becoming more and more popular in the field of sweetener solutions, because it can not only meet the needs of consumers, but also provide significant processing convenience for formula designers. The UNESCO survey found that 53% of consumers prefer rice syrup and 48% of consumers have a positive impression of cassava syrup. They are syrup substitutes that can identify the source, can be directly used in large quantities, and also contribute to consumer friendly labels.

Spun sugar

At present, cassava syrup products are constantly emerging in foreign countries. Funky Mello's plant-based marshmallow cream added chickpeas, cassava syrup, sea salt, etc. In addition, the brand plans to open up a category of refrigerated desserts.

Soft candy

Cornread Hemp Full Spectrum CBD Gummies CBD soft candy introduced by Cornread Hemp is added with organic cassava syrup.

Energy drinks

OCA Beverage Company has introduced an organic energy drink featuring cassava, which uses soda water, cassava syrup, agave syrup, arabic gum, citric acid, raw coffee, etc. It believed that cassava powder or cassava root extract could provide continuous energy.

Functional chocolate

Mid Day Squares, a manufacturer of functional chocolate, announced in May this year that organic cassava syrup and organic pea protein were added to its formula, reducing the sugar content of each product from 5g to 4g, and making progress in cleaning labels.

The plant based cream launched by Eclipse Foods also includes cassava syrup, sugar, water, calcium lactate, etc. It was quickly welcomed in the market.

On the whole, the sugar substitute market is mainly used in the beverage direction. Although the category of sugar reducing products in the food direction is expanding, it is far from enough. In fact, in addition to beverages, baking, table sugar, condiments, etc. are all racetracks with significant sugar reduction needs, and enterprises can expand and deepen their efforts. At present, there are few enterprises in these tracks, and the ceiling of the sugar substitute market should not only stay in the direction of drinks.

Information source: 1. food navigator; 2、Foodbusinessnews；