KANSAS CITY —Two-thirds of consumers today say they are trying to limit their sugar consumption, according to the 2024 Food and Health Survey from the International Food Information Council (IFIC). That’s an increase of 5 percentage points from just a year ago, which means the concerns among consumers are continuing to rise. 

Added sugars are often the target of these efforts. However, three in 10 consumers surveyed by IFIC are trying to limit or avoid both added sugars and sugars that are naturally present in foods. To keep baked goods relevant, bakers are revisiting their ingredient toolbox to make products more nutritionally appealing. 

“We’ve found that when reducing or replacing su­crose in bakery applications, there is no one answer,” said Hannah Dressen, business development manager, Batory Sweetener Solutions. “Often a blend of two or three alter­native sweeteners helps replicate the full range of sugar’s effects on taste, texture, moisture and shelf life.” 

Allulose, for example, is a popular alternative sweet­ener to use, Dressen continued, but it can be limiting in baking applications since it is only 70% as sweet as sucrose. 

“For indulgent baking applications that are looking for high-sugar reduction, like cookies or cake, allulose on its own is insufficient,” she said. “It becomes neces­sary to blend allulose with high-potency sweeteners, such as monk fruit, stevia or sucralose, to achieve a bal­anced sweetness in your product. Other options include the bulking sweetener tagatose, which is 90% as sweet as sucrose. When using tagatose, one may be able to use even smaller amounts of high-potency sweeteners, if any.” 

Snack maker Joydays, Los Angeles, uses multiple in­gredients to sweeten its better-for-you snack cookies. Two of its low-glycemic chewy cookies contain 3 grams of sugar and 10 grams of net carbohydrates, along with 5 grams of fiber. Unlike similar products in the market, these cookies contain no sugar alcohols or stevia. The ingredient legend indicates that allulose, blue agave nectar, date paste, inulin and natural flavors are the trick. Each of these ingredients contributes its own unique sweet­ness, which in the finished product resembles sucrose. 

Tricks of the trade 

A number of ingredients — including carbohydrates — provide sweetness to baked goods without being consid­ered added sugar. New non-carbohydrate ingredients are available to enhance sweetness or provide improved perception of sweetness. 

“Carbohydrates are an essential part of a balanced diet as they are vital for the energy supply for the body and brain,” said Jon Peters, sales director, Americas, Beneo. “It’s about choosing the right carbohydrates.” 

For instance, prebiotic fibers boost the fiber content of baked goods and enable manufacturers to reduce sugar and fat in recipes while maintaining desirable tastes and textures. 

“Another example is Beneo’s isomaltulose,” Peters said. “It provides more balanced blood glucose levels throughout the day and may reduce cravings between meals. It is also clinically proven to stimulate the release of GLP-1, which is linked with blood glucose control and appetite reduction.” 

Incredo Ltd. markets a sweetener that is made from real cane sugar and achieves the same level of sweetness with up to 50% less sugar and no compromise on taste or texture, according to the company. The ingredient is made through binding cane or beet sugar with trace amounts of a natural carrier. This improves the efficien­cy of sucrose delivery and dissolution to taste receptors, thereby enhancing the perception of sweetness. Less sugar is required for the same level of sweetness. 

Incredo teamed up with Blommer Chocolate Co. to offer reduced-sugar chocolate-flavored chips and coat­ings. This line of chocolate ingredients is free from high-intensity sweeteners and sugar alcohols. 

Howtian offers a zero-calorie glucosyl stevia glyco­side that is used as a flavor modifier to enhance sweet­ness and flavor, harmonize taste and increase upfront sweetness, suggested Michelle Yin, technical sales. When used in baking under 500 ppm, it can be labeled as natural flavor. It works best when paired with a high-purity stevia or a bulking sweetener. 

The company also has a new zero-calorie baking blend that comprises allulose, soluble fiber and stevia ex­tract. It can be used as a 1:1 substitute for sugar. This blend was specifically cre­ated for ease of use in baking, replicating the bulk and sweetness of sugar with just a single solution, according to Yin. 

Icon Foods now offers a natural sweetening sys­tem formulated to replicate the taste and functionality of brown sugar. It is a blend of erythritol, allulose and monk fruit extract and includes vegetable glycerin, nat­ural flavor and caramel color. 

“It measures, tastes and acts like traditional brown sugar, featuring a warm hint of molasses and that classic golden hue,” said Kash Rocheleau, chief executive officer of Icon Foods. “It contributes no added sugars to the Nutrition Facts Panel and contains 35 calories per 100 grams.” 

Malt Products Corp. has a new minimally processed whole grain malted barley ingredient that functions as a cocoa extender. It replaces up to 50% of cocoa in a formula and, at the same time, enhances sweet choco­late flavor. It increases moisture retention, extend­ing shelf life and improving texture and mouthfeel in baked goods, according to John Johansen, vice president of sales. 

Naturally sweet 

Fruit and vegetable ingredients can add sweetness with­out contributing to added sugars, and they also may assist with minimizing off-notes from high-intensity sweeteners. 

“Fruit pieces and pastes can provide ‘naturally oc­curring’ sweetness from the fruit in baked goods,” said Donna Pechillo, principal designer, design team leader, bars and confectionary, IFF. 

Fruit and vegetable ingredients contribute nutrition, too. Many have a positive impact on color, and some function as humectants, attracting and holding onto wa­ter, which in turn slows staling. 

“They align with market trends around increasing consumer demand for clean label products and recog­nizable ingredients,” said Angela Tipton, marketing manager, Kerr by Ingredion. “We have recently added certified upcycled fruits to support growing demand for sustainable solutions.” 

Ocean Spray Ingredients is rolling out a zero-added­sugar dried cranberry ingredient that is sweetened with allulose. To keep it plump, it’s infused with soluble fiber and water. 

Sunsweet Ingredients offers prune puree, which is high in sorbitol, a natural humectant. It has a tangy fla­vor similar to molasses and a deep purple-brown color with a dense, sticky texture. With its subtle acidity, it enhances flavors without overpowering them. Added in small quantities to cookies, prune puree produces a chewy texture without dramatically impacting the color of the dough. 

Sweet potato concentrate is another no-added-sug­ar option.

“It offers a natural sweetness while providing a com­forting label alternative to refined sugar,” said Scott Gilbertson, flavor chemist, Wixon. 

He added that using apple juice instead of water can subtly enhance sweetness in baked goods. 

As a bakery food ingredient, honey offers flavor, func­tionality and marketability. This natural ingredient is composed of fructose and glucose, making it up to 50% sweeter than sugar. This may allow product developers to reduce the overall amount of sweetening ingredients in a formula. 

“Honey caramelizes during baking and contributes a desirable golden color to products,” said Catherine Barry, vice president of marketing, National Honey Board. “However, since honey’s main sugars are glucose and fructose, the Maillard reaction triggered by honey will be sped up. This allows bakers to lower their oven temperature or bake time and still maintain a quality color through their bake.” 

Barry added that honey is also a natural humectant. 

“Honey’s fructose content naturally extends shelf life and reduces dryness and crumbliness of bakery foods, making for a more acceptable finished product,” she said. “The high acidity of honey helps inhibit mold growth.” 

Using precision technology 

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’s being used by Avansya, the joint venture between Cargill and DSM-Firmenich. Precision fermentation enables the company to produce the sweetest and clean­est-tasting components of the stevia leaf — zero-calorie steviol glycosides Reb M and Reb D — without the leaf. 

“Reb M and Reb D exist in the leaf in such low levels — less than 1% — that it’s simply not economically or commercially viable to produce a sweetener made from these sweet-tasting molecules using a traditional agro­nomic approach,” said Carla Saunders, senior market­ing manager for high-intensity sweeteners, Cargill. “As a result, we moved from the field to fermentation, us­ing a specially crafted yeast to produce the same Reb M and Reb D molecules found in minute quantities in the stevia leaf. Using fermentation, we can produce quantities at a price point that makes widespread commercial use possible.” 

Oobli uses precision fermentation to make a sweet protein, which as of March of this year is Generally Recognized as Safe for use as a sweetener in food and beverages. The ingredient gets its genetics from the oubli fruit native to West Africa. Almost 2,000 times as sweet as sucrose, it can replace 70% or more of sugar in most food, including baked goods. 

“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. 

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 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. 

“We’re on a mission to unlock nature’s abilities to make consumers’ favorite foods more delicious, healthy and planet-friendly,” said Todd Rands, chief executive of­ficer at Elo Life Systems. “It’s about making foods more nutrient-dense, not calorically dense. We use artificial intel­ligence and proprietary algorithms to gain deeper insights across native genomes, genes and traits.” 

Advancements in enzyme technology are also fueling ingredient innovation and product development. Better Juice, 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. These juice ingredients may be concentrated into purees and other forms that have application in baked goods and other foods. 

Better Juice does not sell ingredients. It provides the tech­nology in the form of a plug-in unit that contains the pat­ented immobilized enzymes. 

Enzymes are what will make tagatose a more viable low-calorie sweetener. Tagatose, which has about half the calo­ries of sugar, 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. 

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

“Our large-scale starch sweetener production expertise can significantly enhance processing efficiency post enzy­matic conversion,” said Anne Hirsch, head of sugar man­agement at Roquette. 

Bakers have many options to cut sugar from their prod­ucts, from the familiar to the many ingredients brand new or in development. Formulators will want to explore their use to keep baked goods relevant to consumers wanting to cut down on sugar.