If sugar had a personality, it might be described as a people pleaser. Given the task of providing sweetness, it is comfortable being alone. Whether asked to impart crust color or moisture binding to baked goods, or to provide fullness to beverages, sugar seeks your approval and is always dependable.
As with any co-dependent relationship, if moderation isn’t practiced, sugar will present a dark side. It quickly adds the drama of calories to foods and beverages. Over-consumption can lead to hyperglycemia. When blood sugar levels are frequently high, nerves, blood vessels and organs may be damaged. Health-conscious consumers increasingly choose relationships with foods with reduced sugar, and food developers are challenged to create products that taste and perform like their sugar-rich counterparts with limited tools. Until recently, no other sweetener offered the same sensory and functional attributes as sugar.
Icon Foods offers you an allulose solution by offering our KetoseSweet syrups.
Allulose is a rare sugar that occurs in wheat, figs, raisins and jackfruit. Also called D-Psicose, it is a low-energy monosaccharide sugar. It is a C-3 epimer of fructose, and has the same molecular formula as fructose and glucose. But unlike fructose and glucose, allulose is not rapidly digested and absorbed. It passes through the body without being metabolized.
Non-digestible carbohydrates are associated with body weight reduction. Compared to sugar’s 4 calories per gram, allulose has only 0.2 calories per gram. Even though it is only 70 percent as sweet, it has the same temporal profile as sugar. Plus, it provides the expected mouthfeel that sugar imparts, leading to a more satisfying flavor without requiring the addition of bulking ingredients.
Considered GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), allulose may be used as a sole source of sweetness or in combination with other sweeteners like stevia and or monk fruit. Allulose exhibits a synergistic effect with other sweeteners, so optimal flavor development and cost benefits are realized when formulating reduced, low, or calorie-free foods and beverages.
Although it is comparable to erythritol in calorie delivery, it does not present the cooling effect of erythritol, making it a more pleasing choice in many applications. In place of or in tandem with erythritol, it may be used with high intensity sweeteners to add sweetness and bulk. Or, it may be used to reduce added sugar levels while maintaining sensory and functional attributes.
FDA allows use in a wide range of food products including:
- carbonated and non-carbonated beverages
- baked goods such as frostings, cakes, pies, pastries, biscuits and rolls
- frozen dairy desserts
- jams and jellies; sweet sauces
- syrups
- chewing gum
- hard and soft candies
- puddings and fillings.
Because allulose functions like sugar, it is easily used in food applications. Important to bakers, allulose has a number of functional benefits. In aerated food systems, foaming properties of egg whites are improved. Participation in the Maillard reaction supports browning and adds a golden hue to breads and rolls. Along with a desirable crust color, researchers find increased antioxidant activity. Moisture-binding also contributes to extended shelf-life. Brownies and cookies will not harden over time.
In frozen desserts, texture, palatability and scoopability are dependent on the dynamics between ice and water. Allulose aids the process by depressing the freezing point. In high-solid systems, allulose has a low tendency to crystallize. It is highly soluble at low or high temperature solutions.
Icon Foods has a fantastic position on allulose syrup. We are itching to get you a sample of KetoseSweet. Reach out to your Icon Foods rep for a sample and see how KetoseSweet can fill the void left by your taking a stand and leaving your destructive relationship with sugar.
Bakery
Applications:
Cookies, Bake Mixes, Cakes, Breads
Features & Benefits:
Browning – Allulose browns more than sucrose, making it ideal in applications such as baked goods in which browning is a preferred visual quality attribute.
Crumb Structure – Like sugar allulose contributes to crumb structure of baked products.
Crystallization – Allulose has a lower tendency to crystallize in high solid systems when compared to other sugars.
Humectancy – Allulose has a high humectancy which can increase the shelf life of products such as soft baked goods and cereal bars will be increased in comparison.
Solubility – On a relative basis, allulose is more soluble than sucrose over a wide range of temperatures.
Dairy/Alternatives
Applications:
Frozen Desserts; Yogurt
Features & Benefits:
Flavor Profile – Allulose can be used to build up the flavor profile of a product, especially since it has a similar taste to sucrose, giving it a neutral clean sweet profile.
Freezing Point – Allulose significantly depresses the freezing point of frozen frozen desserts and ice cream.
Stability – Allulose is stable in a variety of different food product formulations and under different processing conditions such as that in all dairy applications and frozen desserts.
Sweetener Compatibility – Allulose works well when combined with high-potency sweeteners, such as monk fruit and or stevia delivering sweetness on parity with sucrose.
Confectionary
Applications:
Candy Bars, Chocolates, Hard Candies
Features & Benefits:
Clean Label Sugar Reduction – Reduce calories and sugar in candy products such as gummies and hard candies.
Caramelization – Allulose caramelizes, thickens, but does not crystalize when cooled like other sugar substitutes.
Gummies – Can be used as a clean label low calorie, zero net carb substitute for glucose syrup and or HFCS in gummies and a variety of other confectionary.
No Added Sugar Chocolate – Allulose can be used to make low glycemic, low carb, Keto friendly chocolate. Industry calls allulose a low-calorie sugar which may fall under the standard of identity in chocolate as No Added Sugar Chocolate.
