The science behind sugar reduction
To assist researchers and product developers in understanding the science and technology in formulating with reduced sugar and alternative sweeteners, IFT has compiled 13 review papers and studies from its peer-reviewed scientific journals in a special web section on Sugar Reduction.
Sugar has come under increasing public scrutiny from policy makers and consumers due to its caloric contribution to the diet and the rise of overweight and obese populations of children and adults throughout the world. This has led the food industry to partially or fully replace sugar with nonnutritive and low-calorie sweeteners in many foods and beverages. However, this is not a simple formulation change due to potential differences in taste, sweetness intensity and duration, loss of functionality (e.g., texture), and consumer concerns about the safety of alternative sweeteners.
To assist researchers and product developers in understanding the science and technology in formulating with reduced sugar and alternative sweeteners, IFT has compiled 13 review papers and studies from its peer-reviewed scientific journals in a special web section on Sugar Reduction. The articles featured here discuss sugar’s role in product formulation, molecular mechanisms of sweet taste, the safety of sugar substitutes, taste optimization using sweetener blends, novel production methods of low-calorie sweeteners, stability of low-calorie sweeteners, and sensory characteristics of various sweeteners.