Not Your Grandmother’s Sugar: New Players in the Sucrose Game

Sugar is the proverbial double-edged sword. Sugar, or sucrose, tastes delicious and offers both sweetness and functionality to a plethora of foods. Still, paradoxically, it has long been maligned as a contributor to obesity and heart disease. Although scientists agree that sugar is not conducive to a healthy diet, finding a viable substitute has proven difficult. Currently, sugar resides in 60% of packaged foods sold in the U.S ., and consequently, the United States has one of the highest sugar consumption rates in the world. Scientists continue to pursue alternatives that are both flavorful and healthier.?

What Sugar Does for Taste: Fun AND Functionality

Sugar, unsurprisingly, makes food taste good, and Americans love their sugar, consuming about 64 pounds of sugars per year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. But the taste is only one puzzle piece. Sugar also ties into people’s feelings of nostalgia and muscle memory, and it also provides functionality in food.

?Bryan Tungland , vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs at Monmouth Junction, said, “Sweeteners affect the microbiological safety of food products, provide browning characteristics, viscosity, body, and mouthfeel, and affect the dielectric constant (a measure of how molecules move when they are energized). Sugar affects the entire eating experience, not just the sweetness factor.

Who’s Who Among Sugar Substitutes

Today’s food technologists are raising the bar on sugar stand-ins. Gone are the old traditional sweeteners such as Sweet’N Low and Equal. In their place are a few dynamic new sweeteners.

?Produced by bioconversion technology, Sweegen’s Non-GMO Bestevia Rebaudioside M (Reb M) offers sweetness without all the aftertaste and prides itself on reducing its carbon footprint, being careful to maintain taste. “When you reduce sugar, you need to look at all the other different flavor aspects,” said Senior Director Business Development EMEA Michael Halvorsen .?

?Another sweetener, Incredo, is made by Israel-based DouxMatok. A sucralose adaptation that is sweeter than usual, with Incredo, less is more. Because sugar molecules are so tightly interwoven, most of them do not influence the taste buds, and about 80% of what humans consider sweetness in sugar is lost on them . Incredo’s technology allows more sugar to be tasted.?

Supplant from England is another sweetener that aims to lower calories and slow how sugar is processed. Made from plant waste like corn cobs and wheat bran, Supplant’s enzymatic process creates a fine white powder containing small chains of disaccharides, which can be used like sugar in baking and eating.?

?Currently, allulose is the powerhouse of substitutes, with 70% of the sweetness sugar is traditionally known for, but only a fraction of the calories. “You just don’t have many products that come alone that are very low calorie with the functionality that allulose has, the sweetness, the bulking. We’ve seen a lot of interest in allulose for confectionery, protein bars, nutrition bars, dairy, and to a lesser degree, we’ve seen it in beverages and in baking.” Nate Yates, VP Global Sugar Reduction Platform at Ingredion . Already considered an authorized food ingredient by the United States and Mexico, Ingredion is trying to obtain the approval of this “rare” sugar for Europe and the UK.?

Sweet and Sour

People’s love affair with sugar will continue, but consumers are trying to make healthier choices. “37% of consumers globally are looking for products with no sugar, no added sugar or low sugar.” But at the same time, the consumers are not willing to give up the taste and functionality of the snack and baked products they enjoy.?