Sugar reduction / alternatives

Sugar reduction / alternatives

There has been a lot in the media about sugar reduction and implementation of sugar taxes, but do taxes really work? Shouldn’t we be able to make intelligent decisions for ourselves and know what is good for us or not? As sugar is an addiction it is difficult for people to make logical decisions, so we believe that if there would be an easy way to switch over to something else, which has the same features and gives consumer the full enjoyment, we can stop the overconsumption of sugar, because habits don’t have to be changed. So how are we planning to do it? What are the features, which makes producers using and consumer consuming it?

Role of sugar for consumers

For the consumer, it is, of course, the sweet sensation, which is the main driver for consumption of sugar, which automatically stimulates his or her reward centres. It can be slightly tricked by sweeteners, but studies described that participants didn’t feel the same enjoyment, they feel with sugary, high-calorie food. Researchers, therefore, think that not just the sweetness, but also the calories, which are responsible for the satisfaction reaction in consumer brains, which also makes sense as fatty comfort food can also stimulate the reward centres in the brain. Going down to zero sugar, zero calories with sweeteners will therefore probably not create a satisfactory experience for consumers and will it make therefor hard for them to switch over from the sugar-loaded alternatives out there. Another point, which makes it hard for consumers to switch over to zero sugar options, is that they often contain high-intensity sweeteners, which don’t have the pleasant taste of sugar, taste bitter, too sweet or stay on the tongue for too long. A sugar replacer has therefore addressed these problems to allow an effortless swap over.

Role of sugar in manufacturing

To food manufacturers, sugar is more than just a sweetener, so supporting them to reduce their sugar usage, will not be done by just providing them with a sweetener like Stevia or Aspartame. Reducing sugar for them creates many different problems for them as sugar influences of many other product and process properties.

• Texture

• Colour

• Flavour enhancer

• Preservative

• Fermentation

• Sensoric quality

• To hold moister

• Acidity regulator

• Ice crystal preventer

• Breakdown proteins

• Enhancement and regulation of setting agents

• and also bulking capabilities and much more...

So when creating a real sugar substitute you have to take into account not just the sweetness replacement, but all of the above-related attributions it gives.

The goal is to addressing all these points from the consumer and manufacturers while developing a low calorie, low glycemic sweetener that is a 1:1 sugar replacer, which is able to caramelise and can be used in the same quantities and ticks all the other boxes mentioned above with fewer calories than normal sucrose.