The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to mandate front-of-package labeling for added sugars, which are sweet, caloric carbohydrates.

This comes at a time when more consumers (66% in 2024 vs. 61% in 2023) are trying to limit their sugar consumption, according to the 2024 Food and Health Survey from the International Food Information Council (IFIC), Washington.

“Consumer interest in reduced-sugar products has climbed steadily for the last decade,” said Regina Draper, Cargill’s research and development manager for dairy. “Consumers, however, are not willing to compromise on taste, texture and other sensory characteristics. They expect reduced-sugar dairy products to deliver similar indulgent experiences as their full-sugar counterparts. Fortunately, advances in ingredient solutions and formulation science are making this possible, closing lingering gaps around taste and mouthfeel to deliver reduced-sugar products that live up to consumers’ sensory expectations.”

Flavored milk, ice cream and yogurt are some of the more familiar dairy foods known for being heavy in sugar. Swapping caloric sweeteners with non-caloric ones is an option, but not always the best, as caloric sweeteners do more than just sweeten.

“Anytime you pull out added sugar, you lose volume that must be replaced,” said Thom King, chief innovations officer, Icon Foods, Portland, Ore. “Removing sugar can also impact mouthfeel and viscosity. The issue is there’s not a one-to-one replacement for sugar, so the challenge is in finding the right combination of ingredients to match the sweetness, texture and flavor of sucrose.”

Jenise Pratt, senior manager of commercialization, Sweegen, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., added: “The sweetness that sugar provides works to mitigate off-notes, cut tartness and bitterness, and carry the flavor. Sugar also depresses the freezing point and improves the creaminess — by reducing ice crystal formation — in frozen dairy applications.”

The higher the original sugar content of a dairy product, the more challenging it is to manage a sugar reduction. That’s because sugar has historically been one of the least expensive ingredients in many sweetened dairy foods, so a lot was added to make them tasty.

“Higher sugar content not only enhances sweetness, but also balances flavors,” said Mark Robert, technical lead, dairy, Tate & Lyle, Hoffman Estates, Ill. “When you reduce or remove sugar, you risk off-flavor development.”

Draper added: “Higher protein formulations — whether it’s a dairy beverage, yogurt or ice cream — add another layer of complexity. Whenever you work with high levels of protein, whether it’s sourced from animals or plants, you’ll have taste issues. That’s where we often recommend combining our most advanced stevia sweetener with a natural flavor.”

Such a sweetener system helps mute many of the off-flavors that come with proteins, while enhancing characterizing flavors. It may also enhance mouthfeel.

“On the safety side, sugar reduces water activity, which helps with shelf life,” Robert said. “To maintain food safety and extend shelf life, alternative ingredients should be incorporated that can perform a similar function.”

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Ingredient technology

Formulators are manipulating ingredient technologies to assist with managing the sugar content of dairy foods. Examples include creative use of enzymes, fermentation, flavor enhancers, bitter blockers, fruit concentrates, taste modulators and more.

Kerr by Ingredion, Salem, Ore., for example, uses fruit solutions, such as juices, purees and essences to deliver on flavor expectations without sacrificing taste. Such ingredients may allow for claims such as “sweetened naturally with fruits and vegetables.” These ingredients also naturally contribute color and flavor, while building back body and adding nutrition.

When removing sugars, many applications will require functional build-back ingredients, some of which come with some degree of sweet, according to Matthew Park, senior associate, sugar reduction, Ingredion Inc., Westchester, Ill. Such ingredients include polyols, soluble fibers, low-sugar syrups, starches and hydrocolloids. Allulose also provides body and mouthfeel.

Allulose is a rare sugar that is absorbed by the body but not metabolized. This is why it is not declared as an added sugar on nutrition labels. Liquid allulose may help reduce calorie content while still delivering a caramelized flavor note in some finished products.

The polyol erythritol is a frequent partner with stevia. It shines in applications such as ice creams, in which it has a greater impact on freezing point depression compared to sucrose, according to Draper.

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“Pectins have a role to play, too,” Draper said. “They’re used in reduced-sugar yogurts to help maintain decadent textures and mouthfeel, stabilize proteins, and prevent syneresis. You’ll find them in yogurt fruit preparations, too, where they provide a creamy texture.”

Robert added: “Allulose is also ideal for fruit preparations used in yogurt. It helps lower water activity, which is critical for preserving the quality of fruit in dairy applications.”

Because sugar supports the proper swelling and hydration of the starches often used in cultured products, it is critical to identify an alternative ingredient to keep the system stable.

“In yogurt, soluble fiber can replace the bulk of sugar. It helps with mouthfeel and supports starch hydration, which is essential for maintaining texture,” Robert said. “It also offers the added benefit of fiber fortification, which contributes to digestive health and supports bone health through enhanced mineral absorption.

“Soluble corn fiber is very effective in providing texture and mouthfeel in frozen desserts,” Robert continued. “In most applications, it can be used as a direct replacement for corn syrup.”

King added: “Recently we have leaned into the use of thaumatin. It not only acts as a sweetening agent, but it also enhances the perception of sweetness.”

Thaumatin is a protein-based sweetener with flavor modifying properties. It is derived from the katemfe fruit and used in very low concentrations.

“It essentially stretches the sugar in a formulation to cut sugar by up to 75%,” King said. “Reb M stevia is another sweetener that works exceptionally well to significantly reduce or eliminate added sugar in products and achieve the same taste profile. Although it is a high-intensity sweetener, Reb M stevia is known for a lower astringency, fewer licorice notes and a less bitter aftertaste compared with other steviol glycosides. It also acts as a positive allosteric modulator, extending the sweet flavor of other ingredients.”

Said Hank Wang, technical director, Howtian, New York: “Some formulators have found that glucosylated steviol glycosides or enzyme-modified glycosides have mouthfeel and bitter-blocking capabilities. Our research shows that that these glycosides have a higher molecular weight due to the addition of glucose molecules added onto the core stevia molecule. This larger molecular structure is responsible for the functional benefits.”

Another set of ingredients that help round out the eating and drinking experience are FMPs (flavors with modifying properties). These are non-characterizing flavor modulators.  

“These are valuable formulation tools in perfecting a product’s taste profile,” Park said. “The ingredients fall under the natural flavor declaration on product ingredient labels. Whether you need to enhance sweetness quality, minimize bitterness or off-notes or boost other flavor notes, FMPs can be the finishing touch your product needs.”

Added Pratt: “Taste modulation is complex, and taste modulators should be in the toolkit of every product developer who is serious about sugar reduction. When creating better-for-you products, with functional ingredients or reduced sugar, taste modulators provide exceptional flexibility for re-establishing balance in a food or beverage system.”

When reformulating to reduce sugar, fibers play a critical role in replacing some of sugar’s functional aspects, such as mouthfeel, texture, gelling properties and bulk. Some provide added benefits.

Chicory root fibers, such as inulin and oligofructose, are proven prebiotics. As soluble fibers, they are easily used in many dairy applications.

“By providing bulk solids, chicory root fibers can replace added sugars while maintaining the taste and texture of the final product,” said Kyle Krause, product manager, Beneo, Parsippany, NJ. “In terms of added health benefits, chicory root fibers reduce the glycemic response by replacing sugar or other high glycemic carbohydrates in food formulations and at the same time enrich with fiber content, thus helping consumers to bridge the fiber gap.”

Isomalt is another sweetening option. It is derived from sugar beet and has half the caloric value of traditional sugar.

“Isomalt provides a sweetening profile similar to sucrose,” Krause added. “Beyond its low effect on blood glucose, it is also tooth-friendly, carrying a health claim by the FDA for not promoting tooth decay.”

Isomaltulose is also derived from sugar beet. It, too, can be used to lower the glycemic profile of dairy products.

“It provides the body with the same carbohydrate energy as sucrose. Thanks to its unique glucose-fructose binding, energy in the form of glucose is released more slowly and not all at once,” Krause said. “As a result, the body is supplied with fuel for longer and uses this for sustained energy.”

The Future of sweet

There’s a great deal of technology being applied to the sweetener space. Precision fermentation is one. This encompasses bioengineering techniques that program microorganisms to produce a compound of interest.

It is being used by Avansya, the joint venture between Cargill and dsm-firmenich, Maastricht, The Netherlands. Precision fermentation enables the company to produce the sweetest and cleanest-tasting components of the stevia leaf--steviol glycosides Reb M and Reb D, without the leaf.

Oobli uses precision fermentation to make a sweet protein, which as of March 2024 is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for use as a sweetener in food and beverages. The ingredient gets its genetics from the oubli fruit native to West Africa.

“Oobli is changing the future of sweetness through the use of sweet proteins as a replacement for traditional cane sugar and other alternative sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, stevia and erythritol,” said Jason Ryder, founder and chief technology officer, Oobli. “Sweet proteins are a class of proteins that deliver a sugar-like sweetness but don’t affect blood sugar, insulin or the gut microbiome. For most foods, we can replace anywhere from 50% to 90% of the sugar used for sweetening without changing tastes.”

Molecular farming is another science being explored to produce specialty ingredients. Instead of using a bioreactor, as is the case with precision fermentation, plants are genetically modified to produce the ingredients. Elo Life Systems, Durham, NC, has a molecular farming platform that produces ingredients that may be difficult to harvest from natural sources and cannot be synthesized through artificial or other techniques. The company produces easy-to-grow crops as bio factories for these ingredients. The company’s first product is a monk fruit derived sweetener that will launch in 2026.

Advancements in enzyme technology are also fueling ingredient innovation and product development. Better Juice, Rehovot, Israel, for example, has a patented enzymatic technology that transforms fruit juice’s composition of sucrose, glucose and fructose into prebiotic oligosaccharides and other non-digestible fibers, without any impact on vitamins, other nutrients and sensory appeal.

The technology involves running fruit juices through continuous-flow columns that contain immobilized sugar-reducing beads based on non-GMO microorganisms. The end result is fruit juice with less sugar, more fiber and fewer calories, without any impact on vitamins, other nutrients and sensory appeal. These juice ingredients may be concentrated into purees and other forms.

Better Juice does not sell ingredients. It provides the technology in the form of a plug-in unit that contains the patented immobilized enzymes. The company recently obtained self-affirmed GRAS status.

“Better Juice technology can treat all types of sugar, including honey, maple syrup and even milk; however, now we are focusing on juice,” said Gali Yarom, co-founder and chief executive officer. “We are not another sugar replacer. We reduce the sugar from the source and enrich the products with fibers.

“We succeeded in creating delicious sorbets with as little as 2% sugar,” said Yarom. “Our treated sorbets possess a more gentle sweetness yet retain all their characteristic fruity notes and flavor. They have fewer calories and a lower glycemic index.”

Enzymes are what will make tagatose a more viable low-calorie sweetener. Tagatose is a naturally occurring rare sugar found in fruits and dairy milk.

“Tagatose closely matches the taste, flavor and cookability of white sugar while offering health benefits such as reduced calories and an ultra-low glycemic index,” said Ed Rogers, chief executive officer, Bonumose, Charlottesville, NC.

Bonumose is a later-stage startup food ingredient manufacturer that developed an enzymatic continuous production process for high-purity tagatose, allulose and other good-for-you ingredients from abundant, plant-based feedstocks. The company teamed up with Roquette, Lestrem, France, to scale up the process.

Today’s consumers still crave sweet. They just are not that into caloric sugars. Fortunately, ingredient and technology suppliers are here to assist.