According to a new study by Gallup, the average American consumes approximately nine sweetened prepared food or beverages on a regular basis. While 83 per cent of consumers are looking to lose weight or maintain their weight, eliminating the calories that come from sugar is a big part of any potential weight loss. 61 per cent of Americans said they consume low or no-calorie sweeteners as part of their weight loss plan. This is why the industry has focused on the state of sweeteners, and how to provide sweeteners that have the taste but lack the calories.
Back in July, Tate & Lyle partnered up with Food Product Design to get some information about consumers and their habits for consuming sweeteners. 55 per cent of the participants worked in the food industry and 16 per cent were from the beverage industry.
Results showed that taste is the most important factor when it comes to sweetener selection by consumers, with 87 per cent citing taste as their number one consideration over health, cost targets, product positioning, and more.
Innova Market Insights says that food and beverage items containing high-intensity sweeteners are doubling in comparison to items containing sugar. The survey showed that the most-used sweeteners are Ace-K and Aspartame, both with a 39 per cent, followed by Erythritol and Sucralose. However, replacing sugar with sweeteners has its own challenges, such as maintaining the product’s texture and mouth feel as well as maintaining a balanced, sweet taste. Rebaudioside, a form of stevia, has a bitter aftertaste. (https://7ziphelp.com/) Suppliers using this ingredient need to be informed of what other ingredients to combine it with in order to hide the bitterness.
62 per cent of participants stated that whether the sweetener in a product is coming from a natural source, as opposed to artificial, is important. 64 per cent predicted that their use of stevia would increase over the next three years, while 50 per cent foresaw a decrease in their use of aspartame.
In the future, sweetener production will depend largely on health concerns as well as technical capabilities of the suppliers involved, as ingredient technology continues to develop.
