Sugar is an important ingredient in food manufacturing, which tastes great and contributes to "texture, volume, taste," aroma, color and many other attributes of food, and its use and popularity in food has a long history. However, the past decade has been a turning point, with increasing voices calling for a reduction in dietary sugar to improve overall health and pointing out that chronic diseases can be linked to excessive sugar consumption. This has led to the development of an entire industry in the area of sugar replacement and reduction solutions, and actively researching new ingredients and technologies for the cause to help consumers meaningfully reduce sugar consumption in their diets without sacrificing taste and texture. So what are the hot sugar reduction ingredients

and emerging technologies on the market?

01 Rare sugar

Rare sugars are not sugar substitutes, but simple sugars and sugar alcohols found naturally in plants and are rare compared to glucose and fructose, which are abundant in nature. Currently, five kinds of rare sugars are mainly used -- allulose, isomaltulose, L-arabinose, tagatose and trehalose. Although rare sugars have similar properties to sugars,rare sugars generally have slower intestinal absorption rate, lower calories, no cause of sugar rise and tooth decay, and with prebiotic functions.

02 Sugar substitutes

Sugar alcohols: Although most sugar alcohols are not "sugar free", they are also being promoted by major companies in the " sugar reduction" trend.In addition to

the characteristics of low sugar, sugar alcohol processing performance is stable, acid resistance, high temperature resistance, will not lose its effects in the processing, it can well maintain its original health functions, and does not need to change the original product production process; At the same time, it will not have adverse effects on the taste and flavor of the beverage, and the product processing stability is high.The well- known ones are erythritol, xylitol, maltitol, sorbitol, lactitol, mannitol and isomalt, etc.

Artificial sweetener: As a functional high intensity sweetener, artificial sweetener has the characteristics of high application safety, less consumption, high sweetness, use cost is generally much lower than that of sucrose and so on.So far, the main varieties approved and allowed to use are saccharin sodium, cyclamate, AK sugar, aspartame, sucralose, altame, neotame and so on.Among them, sucralose is a sweetener obtained from sucrose. Under the global trend of sugar reduction, sucralose products, as high-quality sugar substitute products, have developed rapidly, and the demand has increased significantly. It has become a popular accessory ingredient for food and beverage.

Natural sweeteners: Using natural sweeteners to reduce sugar has become a

competitive market. Among them, the most popular ones are stevia and monkfruit.

According to SPINS data, monkfruit achieved a 20% market growth rate in 2021, while stevia achieved a 15% market growth rate.Due to the product properties of these sweeteners, major raw material enterprises have been committed to improving the taste of these sweeteners, such as stevia + natural flavor, stevia + mystery fruit extract, etc. ln addition, the naturally occurring form of honey in plants is also welcomed by various raw material enterprises and food manufacturers, such as coconut flower honey, agave nectar,yacon syrup, etc., which contain fructose or fructooligosaccharides, generally have a low glycemic index, and contain other functional components such as antioxidant components,minerals such as iron and zinc, and dietary fiber components. In recent years, it has a relatively good growth rate and is used by more food manufacturers for sweetening food and beverage.

Sweet protein: Sweet protein is essentially a protein that can be converted into

amino acids and absorbed by the human body after being ingested. It has no effect

on blood sugar and has no unpleasant odor such as bitter taste and metallic

taste.There are seven main sweet proteins: soma sweet, monelin, brazil sweet

protein, petatin, curculigo sweet protein, caper protein and mystic fruit protein. Although sweet proteins have been studied for a long time, so far its application is far inferior to star sugar substitute ingredients such as erythritol and stevia.The main reason is that sweet protein extraction from pure plants has high cost and poor stability, and has not been effectively developed for a long time.At present, the most successful commercialization is mainly soma sweet. And more and more big companies are entering the sweet protein race. Sweetener supplier Sweegen and its partner Conagen launched Brazzein this year, which uses a proprietary precision fermentation process to produce large quantities in a sustainable manner and offers synergies when combined with Sweegen's stevia.

03 Fiber replacement

Dietary fiber is known as the "seventh nutrient" after the "six nutrients", is an

indispensable important nutrient for human body, with a relatively high consumer health perception.In the sweetener industry, fiber-based sweeteners have also become popular, which can enhance the nutritional value of products while reducing sugar. Cambya, for example, launched by BT Sweet, is based on plants such as soluble fiber + monk fruit, with a 1:1 ratio of function and flavor to sugar;Supplant introduces plant-fiber substitute sugar from corn, wheat, and straw that caramelizes, which provides swell, texture, structure, and more.

04 New sugar reduction methods

Enzymatic hydrolysis "sugar reduction"

Better Juice's enzymatic sugar reduction process will use a continuous flow bioreactor to convert sucrose to dietary fibre, glucose to gluconic acid and fructose to sorbitol using stationary microbes containing active enzymes.The final product contains partial sweetness and new conversion, which can achieve 80% sugar reduction in natural juice, fruit puree and other products, while maintaining the complete flavor and vitamins and nutrients.

Block absorption

Gymnemic acid in gymnemic leaves can block sweet taste buds and temporarily suppress the tongue's perception of sweet taste. The extracts from Pilele, Salacia, and mulberry leaves,etc. can inhibit or reduce the ability of α-glucosidase to enzymatically decompose disaccharides into monosaccharides, thereby inhibiting sugar absorption; α-amylase in white kidney beans can competitively combine with carbohydrates, so that starch cannot be completely decomposed and absorbed.

Inhibition of bitter taste

ClearTaste bitter blockers, made from mycelium in mushrooms, balance the bitterness,astringency, and more of the product, thus reducing the addition of sugar.

Prospect

With the increasing interest of consumers in sugar reduction products, more and more raw material suppliers are committed to the development of sugar reduction raw materials and technology, and strive to meet consumers' expectations for more natural and healthy properties of food.In the future, the demand for sugar reduction will only increase, and it is expected that more sugar reduction products and technologies will emerge to meet the expectations of consumers, raw material suppliers and food manufacturers.