The next popular sweetener - Allulose

Do you know what the hottest sweetener in the U.S. market is right now? The answer is allulose. This still seemingly very niche sweetener is becoming one of the top sweeteners for food and beverage NPDs in the U.S. by leaps and bounds. In the first half of this year alone, a large number of new products have chosen allulose as a sweetener. The industry also predicts that allulose will become the next hot natural sweetener to sweep the world after stevia and erythritol.

Allulose is a differential isomer of fructose, a monosaccharide that occurs naturally but in very small amounts and is also known as a rare sugar. Allulose was first discovered in wheat more than seventy years ago, and later in raisins, dried figs, and brown sugar. in 2015, allulose received FDA approval for use in baked goods, candy, sweet sauces, dairy products, ice cream, desserts, beverages, and other products. However, since then, allulose has not made much of a splash in the U.S. market because it is a monosaccharide, which is still traditionally considered a sugar, and is therefore an "added sugar" that needs to be included in carbohydrates and total sugars, so it cannot be used as a "low-calorie sweetener" like other sweeteners. Therefore, it cannot be used as a "low-calorie sweetener" like other sweeteners.

The FDA announced that the low-calorie sweetener allulose will be excluded from the "added sugars" and "total sugars" labels, and henceforth it will no longer be necessary to calculate its added amount in these two categories, and the calorie content of allulose will be set at 0.4kcal/g. This policy has given a name to allulose as a "natural low-calorie sweetener", and many ingredient companies have started to increase the production of allulose, while new food and beverage products in the U.S. market have also started to use allulose on a large scale. In North America, the number of new products containing allulose in 2020 has tripled compared to 2019.

Futuremarketinsights forecasts the global market for allulose to reach $210 million by the end of 2020, of which 55% is used in food, 37% in beverages, and a small percentage of others in pharmaceuticals; powdered forms of allulose products account for approximately 87% of the market. The global market for allulose is expected to reach $450 million in 2030 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 9.1%, with North America accounting for more than half of the market.

Advantages of Allulose

The biggest advantage of allulose over other zero-calorie natural sweeteners is that it has the same properties and functions as sucrose and is safe enough and "sugar-like" enough to make it an excellent sugar substitute in applications where other sweeteners are difficult to perform, such as baked goods. Its main advantages are the following.

1. Low calories
Allulose is about 70% as sweet as sucrose, but has far fewer calories than sucrose, only one-tenth that of sucrose. a small study in 2015 suggested that allulose may be beneficial for type 2 diabetes and obesity, and researchers reported that allulose may help control blood sugar levels and improve insulin resistance, making it a highly desirable sucrose substitute for obese as well as diabetic patients.

2. Good taste
In terms of taste, allulose has a soft and delicate sweetness that is very similar to that of high purity sucrose, with a slightly faster initial stimulation of the taste buds than sucrose and no adverse taste during and after consumption. Its sweetness does not change with temperature, and it can show pure sweetness at various temperatures.

3、High safety
Aloinose is regarded as the best substitute for erythritol by European and American scholars, because its sweetness is close to both, and it is safer than sugar alcohol. People have a certain tolerance to the intake of various sugar alcohols, otherwise they will have different degrees of diarrhea-assisting effects, but there will be no such situation with allulose, and there is no effect on metabolism and blood sugar level.

In addition, allulose does not use chemical synthesis, the general preparation method is made from fructose extracted from corn or sugar beet through enzymatic differential isomerization method, the generated product is relatively single and belongs to natural products.

4、Improve product quality
Allulose and egg white protein can not only form a better cross-linked structure and improve the texture of the food through the Merad reaction, but also generate substances with high antioxidant effect, which can reduce the oxidation loss in food processing and storage. The partial replacement of sucrose with allulose in cakes can produce a large amount of antioxidant components through the Merad reaction, thus improving the quality of cakes, thus making it an excellent choice for replacing sucrose in baking applications.

5、High stability
The structure and properties of allulose are extremely stable, with strong chemical inertness, and it can maintain its original state even under acidic or alkaline conditions, which is more stable than sucrose, making it convenient to be used in foods with rich nutrients and complex raw material sources.