PORTLAND — Icon Foods expanded its line of alternative sweetener solutions with CitruSweet and ThauSweet, two clean label-friendly natural extracts.

While non-sugar sweeteners tend to rapidly deliver sweetness that dissipates quickly, resulting in off-notes, CitruSweet and ThauSweet overcome this challenge by boosting the capabilities of substitutes like stevia and monk fruit, Icon Foods said. They create a lingering sweet effect that doesn’t require the use of maskers, which also may cover up desired tastes.

Extracted from naringin, a bioflavonoid found in the inner peel of citrus fruits, CitruSweet boosts sweetness after the initial sweetener has peaked, allowing the flavor to remain fuller while masking any related sweetener off-notes. ThauSweet is derived from the West Africa katemfe fruit and helps mask metallic or bitter tastes that can appear with other natural sweeteners.