SWEET SUBSTITUTES

Dairy Field, May 2005 by Dahm, Lori

Alternatives to sugar are appearing in more dairy products due to consumer demand.

Foods that offer consumers a health benefit or weight management solution have become extremely important in today's obesity-focused climate, and as a result, sweetener ingredients that reduce or eliminate sugar have been pushed into the limelight.

Sweetener ingredients are increasingly being used to partially or fully replace fructose in several dairy categories, most notably in ice cream, but also in yogurts and flavored milk beverages.

Much of this new sugar reduction trend was fueled by the lowcarbohydrate craze that is fading away. Foods and beverages that rode the low-carb wave were formulated without sugar or with reduced sugar levels, utilizing either high-intensity sweeteners with bulking agents or polyols to replace the sweetness of fructose.

Although consumers have stopped obsessing upon low-carb options, the effect of a nation trying to lose some of its girth remains a prevalent force for the food industry. The newly released Food Guide Pyramid and the 2005 Dietary Guidelines encourage consumers to avoid added sugar whenever possible. And the purported evils of high-fructose corn syrup continue to motivate mothers and other consumers to seek foods and beverages that don't deliver the 'empty calories' of fructose.

"Consumers are increasingly calorie conscious. The growing awareness of the dangers of being overweight means that health-conscious consumers are interested in alternatives that will help them keep in shape," says Brendan Naulty, vice president of sales and marketing, Ajinomoto Food Ingredients LLC, Chicago. "Consumers' primary concerns are the levels of fat and sugar in their diet. In a survey conducted last year, 37 percent of 1,000 American consumers spontaneously listed sugar as an ingredient that is bad for them, and 28 percent listed fat. Yet very few people - less than 1 percent of the sample - were trying to avoid low-calorie sweeteners."

For manufacturers, using either high-intensity sweetener ingredients or the polyols to create products that consumers perceive to be healthier is a winning proposition. Knowing how to formulate these foods and beverages successfully requires an understanding of the different functional characteristics that the sweetener ingredients deliver in various types of food applications and how these ingredients are optimally used in formulation.

In the Freezer Case

The dairy category demonstrating the biggest increase in the use of sweetener ingredients is ice cream and frozen desserts. Reduced-sugar or no-sugar-added ice creams have become extremely popular with consumers who are reluctant to forfeit indulgence and seek decadent frozen desserts with lower sugar levels. Commonly used sweetener ingredients in ice creams include Litesse polydextrose, acesulfame potassium and various polyols, and more recently the use of Splenda-brand sucralose in ice cream has become widespread.

"Frozen dairy desserts require a delicate, clean flavor. Splenda sucralose is made from sugar, tastes like sugar and does not produce a browning reaction during pasteurization, which results in an overall cleaner flavor," says Joni Simms, technical service manager of the food and ingredients Americas division of Tate and Lyle, Decatur, Ill. "In addition, being readily soluble, Splenda sucralose can be easily incorporated into a wide range of frozen dairy dessert base mixes without settling, precipitating or causing any changes to regular production methods."

The consumer marketing by McNeil Nutritionals of Splenda has been successful in communicating to consumers an assimilation between Splenda and sugar (provoking legal action by the Sugar Association), and it is likely that consumers are embracing the increasing presence of sucralose in reduced-sugar ice creams and other products because of this association.

Ice cream applications that utilize sweetener ingredients require a replacement for sugar's bulking qualities, and a combination of maltodextrin and polydextrose is recommended for use with Splenda, along with sorbitol to achieve the proper freezing point depression.

Other frequently used sweetener ingredients in ice cream formulations include other polyols.

"Our Litesse polydextrose is frequently used in no-sugar-added, reduced-sugar, low-carb and light ice creams for sugar replacement, calorie reduction and carbohydrate management," says Donna Brooks, product manager of Litesse and lactitol at Danisco Sweeteners, Ardsley, N.Y. "Lactitol also works well in these types of ice creams because it also replaces sugar, reduces calories and is nonglycemic. And because lactitol is derived from milk sugar - lactose - it provides excellent taste."

Litesse has a long history of being used in no-sugar-added ice creams and is well-suited to help enhance the texture and mouthfeel of reduced-sugar ice cream products. That Litesse is also a prebiotic fiber is another positive health benefit the ingredient offers.

"Sunnet-brand acesulfame potassium is used in many sugarfree ice creams due to its blending ability with nutritive and non-nutritive sweeteners, and its unique, clean, upfront sweet taste," says Graham Hall, president and chief operating officer, Nutrinova Inc., Somerset, N.J. "Another technical benefit of Sunnett is its heat stability that makes it viable in dairy manufacturing processes."