How Sweet It Is!

As sugar-conscious shoppers increasingly clamor for clean labels, the $108.6 billion sweetener market continues its natural evolution with a projected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.8% from 2022 to 2032, according to business research firm Future Market Insights.

“Natural” is now the most popular label claim across packaged foods among consumers who want to cut down on sugar, followed by “no sugar,” says Tom Rees, industry manager, food and nutrition at Euromonitor International. Among U.S. consumers looking to reduce their sugar intake, products labeled as “only naturally sweetened” and “no sugar” are dominating the market in dollar sales, followed by “unsweetened,” according to SPINS data technology firm.

Mintel market research data show that more than two-thirds of consumers say it is essential for the sugar or sweetness in foods and beverages to come from natural sources, and sales of naturally sweetened products are increasing, according to SPINS. In early 2022, SPINS reported that year-over-year sales were up for products with monk fruit (20%) and stevia (15%), and for beverages with coconut sugar (21%) and sugar alcohols (20%). Although coconut sugar still accounts for only a small portion of the sweetener market, this segment saw nearly a 30% jump in dollar sales in the 52 weeks ending May 21, 2023, according to SPINS.

U.S. shoppers are more likely to check the amount of sugar in a product versus looking for a specific sweetener or claim, says Carla Saunders, senior marketing manager for high-intensity sweeteners at Cargill, but specific sweeteners still stand out from the crowd for better or for worse. In March 2023, for example, widespread media coverage accompanied the release of Cleveland Clinic research suggesting erythritol is associated with elevated risk for major heart problems. The $767 million global market for plant-based stevia, on the other hand, is expected to benefit from rising demand for natural sweeteners with a 10.1% CAGR from 2023 to 2028, according to Mordor Intelligence. “Advanced stevia technology is opening the door to more concentrated applications,” says Saunders.

On the horizon for expanded commercial applications are rare sugars, naturally derived sweeteners that are present in very small amounts in foods such as figs, raisins, and wheat. The rare sugars tagatose and allulose already have been granted generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the $1 billion global rare sugar market is projected to grow at 5.4% CAGR from 2023 to 2032, according to Global Market Insights.

Honey’s Health Halo

U.S. consumers are making a beeline for honey and made-with-honey products, consuming an all-time record of 618 million pounds in 2021, reports the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The natural nectar is widely seen as a superfood, according to the National Honey Board, and consumers who say their most preferred sweetener is honey consider it “natural,” “unprocessed,” and “good for the environment.” The Specialty Food Association dubbed honey its No. 3 trend for 2023, thanks to sweet new honey products featuring adaptogen infusions and sustainably harvested, forest-grown varieties, along with flavorful offerings like peppercorn-infused hot honey.

Sugar and Sweeteners Glossary

Acesulfame potassium—Non-nutritive sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose that combines an organic acid and potassium; marketed as Sunett; also ace-K, acesulfame K

Advantame—Non-nutritive sweetener 20,000 times sweeter than sucrose, produced in a three-step process combining aspartame and HMPA (hexamethylphosphoramide)

Agave syrup—Syrup made from several species of agave, including agave tequilana (blue agave) and agave salmiana; also maguey syrup, agave nectar

Allulose—Rare sugar 70% as sweet as sucrose, commercially produced from corn; found naturally in foods such as dried fruits and maple syrup; also d-allulose

Aspartame—Non-nutritive sweetener 200 times sweeter than sucrose, composed of aspartic acid and phenylalanine; marketed as Equal, NutraSweet

Coconut sugar—Sugar made from coconut palm sap that looks and feels similar to unprocessed raw sugar; also coconut palm sugar

Erythritol—Sugar alcohol 70% as sweet as sucrose, derived from cultivating yeastlike fungi on glucose; found naturally in foods including grapes and mushrooms

High fructose corn syrup—Syrup made from corn starch broken down into individual glucose molecules

High-intensity sweetener—Ingredient many times sweeter than sucrose, regulated by FDA as a food additive unless its use as a sweetener is generally recognized as safe (GRAS)

Honey—Sweet fluid containing mostly sugar and a mix of amino acids, vitamins, minerals, iron, zinc, and antioxidants, made by honeybees using the nectar of flowering plants

Isomalt—Sugar alcohol 45%–65% as sweet as sucrose, composed of glucose, sorbitol, and mannitol

L-arabinose—Rare sugar 50% as sweet as sucrose, commercially extracted from sugar beet pulp and often used in flavor manufacturing; naturally occurring in hemicellulosic structure of most fruits and vegetables

Lactitol—Sugar alcohol 30%–40% as sweet as sucrose, produced by hydrogenating lactose

Maltitol—Sugar alcohol 75%–90% as sweet as sucrose, produced by hydrogenating maltose from starch

Mannitol—Sugar alcohol approximately 50% as sweet as sucrose, extracted from seaweed

Maple syrup—Syrup made from sap of maple trees containing vanillin, hydroxybutanone, lignans, propionaldehyde, and numerous organic acids

Molasses—Viscous substance including significant amounts of vitamin B6 and minerals, produced when refining sugarcane or sugar beets into sugar

Monk fruit—Small, round fruit native to southern China whose juice includes mogroside, which is more than 100 times sweeter than sucrose; also luo han guo

Neotame—Non-nutritive sweetener 7,000–13,000 times sweeter than sucrose, synthesized from aspartame

Non-nutritive sweetener—Sweetener that contains zero or very low amounts of carbohydrates or energy

Saccharin—Non-nutritive sweetener 200–700 times sweeter than sucrose; marketed as Sweet‘N Low

Sorbitol—Sugar alcohol 60% as sweet as sucrose, commercially made from corn syrup; found naturally in some fruits

Stevia—Non-nutritive sweetener 200–400 times sweeter than sucrose, derived from leaves of Stevia rebaudiana plant in South America with active compounds steviol glycosides, mainly stevioside and rebaudioside; marketed as Pure Via, Stevia In The Raw, Truvia

Sucralose—Non-nutritive sweetener 600 times sweeter than sucrose, produced by replacing three hydroxyl groups with three chlorine atoms on the sugar molecule; marketed as Splenda

Sucrose—Disaccharide made up of glucose and fructose; includes raw sugar, granulated sugar, brown sugar, confectioner’s sugar, and turbinado sugar

Sugar—Sweet crystalline substance obtained from various plants, comprising carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms

Sugar alcohol—Type of carbohydrate with chemical structure similar to both sugar and alcohol, slightly lower in calories than sucrose and 25%–100% as sweet as sucrose

Tagatose—Rare sugar 92% as sweet as sucrose, commercially produced from lactose; found naturally in small quantities in dairy products and fruits; also d-tagatose

Trehalose—Rare sugar 50% as sweet as sucrose, commercially produced from maltose; found naturally in small amounts in mushrooms, yeast, and seaweed

Xylitol—Sugar alcohol approximately as sweet as sucrose, commercially produced from xylose; found naturally in fibrous fruits and vegetables ft

Sources: National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Food and Drug Administration