With obesity on the rise, consumers increasingly recognize that sugar contributes a high level of calories in relation to its volume. However, formulating foods and beverages that are reduced in sugar remains a challenge, since consumers often won’t compromise on the taste attributes they expect. Reformulating products to be low in sugar—without loss in product quality—is a key trend in the food industry. Lowering sugar may result in higher costs for alternate materials and processing. Launched at the 2012 International Food Technologists’ meeting, Nutrinova’s Sunsation platform offers a cost-effective solution for sweetening low- and no-calorie foods and beverages, with the added advantage of a sugar-like taste.
Nutrinova, the global sweetener and preservative business of Celanese Corporation, created the Sunsation platform to fill a need in the industry for better-tasting, zero-calorie sweetened products. In the past, manufacturers had to use multiple sweetener ingredients and different combinations to create a desired taste profile. The Sunsation platform’s approach provides drop-in solutions in which the individual ingredients have been selected to complement one another.