Items Tagged with 'sweetness'

Fruit-based sweeteners are moving from niche to mainstream as manufacturers seek natural alternatives to refined sugar. Market forecasts show strong growth fueled by health awareness, clean-label priorities, and the functional advantages these ingredients bring to formulation.

For product developers, creating successful reduced-sugar formulations means navigating a complex landscape of functional trade-offs, ingredient innovations, and shifting definitions of what qualifies as "clean" or "natural."

According to the IFIC survey, one-third of Americans (33%) reported changing their LNCS consumption habit between April 2023 and April 2024. While 10% said they increased LNCS consumption and 6% said they started consuming LNCS, 11% said they decreased LNCS consumption and 6% said they stopped consuming LNCS altogether.

Replacing sugar is more complex than simply replacing sweetness. Sugar carries flavor, enhances mouthfeel, provides bulk, is essential for browning through the Maillard reaction with amino acids, and attracts and retains moisture. In cookies and biscuits, for example, sugar interfaces with flour and fat to affect texture, firmness and spread. Without sugar, products may not crystallize properly, aerate, or set. 

Conagen, a Massachusetts-based biotech firm, has commercialized an expansive portfolio of natural sweetness enhancers for taste modification in sugar reduction solutions for food and beverages. The enhancers are made with precision fermentation, a technology that has led to the innovation of an extensive platform of phenolic antioxidants.