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With an increase in consumers looking for products with lower sugar contents and a need to be transparent with ingredients, finding the next generation of sweeteners can be a challenge. With natural extracts and bioengineered options, Suchita Arya, content specialist at ChemBizR, looks at how producers can deliver a sugar-like experience without negatively impacting the taste and texture consumers love.

The appeal of next-generation sweeteners extends beyond reduced glycaemic and caloric impact to encompass a spectrum of functional benefits. Apart from basic sweetness, ingredients like allulose, tagatose, erythritol, isomaltulose and trehalose exhibit diverse physicochemical properties offering unique taste profiles, improved stability across processing conditions and gut-health benefits.

Designed to deliver a sugar-like experience with minimal metabolic load, these sweeteners fall into three categories: high-intensity natural extracts (eg. stevia and monk fruit); rare monosaccharides (eg. D-allulose); and bioengineered molecules created via fermentation or enzymatic conversion. Reflecting growing interest in next-gen formulations, global product launches featuring allulose rose by 40% between 2022 and 2024.

In 2023, Quest Nutrition diversified its offerings with new flavours of protein bars and soft-baked cookies sweetened with allulose, with the company stating that taste and lower-sugar claims were big selling points. According to a recent market study, demand for allulose in North America is predicted to expand by a CAGR of 8.6% from 2024 to 2030 as consumers increasingly respond to sugar reduction.

Following this momentum, in April of 2024, Ingredion introduced Purecircle Clean Taste Solubility Solution, with a 100× comparative solubility of Reb M stevia to former extracts in a move to make clean taste profiles and formulating easier. Regionally speaking, in 2025, North America shows the highest growth rate in product launches featuring allulose at +135%, followed by Asia-Pacific (APAC) at 34% and Latin America at 21%.

Globally, the regulatory environment for these novel ingredients is in constant flux, requiring careful attention to regional differences and recent decisions from food safety authorities. Acceptance of products such as brazzein in the US and allulose in Australia and New Zealand serves as evidence of the development in this aspect, but emphasises the importance of understanding the regulatory pathways in the respective target markets.

Emerging sweetener innovations

Formulating food and beverage products with next-generation sweeteners requires overcoming the multifaceted roles that sugar plays. In conventional formulations, sugar is a sweetener but also plays a role in texture, mouthfeel, stability and even in preservation to assist in attaining a desired sensory profile and product functionality.

Among these novel solutions, brazzein, a zero-calorie sweet protein found in West African Oubli fruit, replicates sugar taste without losing stability in a broad pH and temperature range. This allows it to be applicable to numerous purposes requiring consistency and dependability in formulation. Sweegen markets brazzein under its product brand Ultratia. On a similar note, brazzein is also made through precision fermentation by Oobli and has been granted FDA GRAS. SMEY also markets a fermented brazzein that is identical to what is naturally found and is said to be between 500-2,000 times as sweet as sugar, and applies to various applications such as drinks and sauces.

Alongside sweet proteins, rare sugars like allulose are also gaining traction for their functional versatility and metabolic advantages. Allulose, a C-3 epimer of fructose, delivers approximately 70% of the sweetness of sucrose with near-zero calories and a negligible glycemic index. It mimics sucrose in browning reactions, bulk and solubility, making it well-suited for baking and dairy applications. The ingredient gained traction after Matsutani Chemical Industry Co, a Japanese company, commercialised it under the brand name Rare Sugar Sweet. Subsequently, Tate & Lyle brought allulose to broader industrial markets in the US under its Dolcia Prima brand.

In parallel, US-based start-up Bonumose has developed a proprietary enzymatic process that converts inexpensive starches into rare sugars like tagatose and allulose at an industrial scale. Its patented technology, co-developed with the University of Virginia, offers significant cost and environmental advantages, driving interest from major food multinationals.

Synthetic biology frontrunner Amyris continues to work on yeast-fermented Reb M sweetener in collaboration with Ingredion, with a focus on enzyme optimisation to scale for volumes. Oobli commercialises brazzein-based teas and chocolates with ultra-low-calorie protein sweetness. Focusing on cleaner-label options, Roquette launched TiO₂-free SweetPearl maltitol chocolates and dairy substitutes with enhanced meltable characteristics for sugar-free products.

While their functional performance is generally very varied across product categories, ranging from sports drinks and carbonated soft drinks to frozen dessert products and fibre-containing baked foods, this calls for a precision strategy in formulating designs. While innovation is moving fast, formulating next-generation sweeteners poses a chain of function-based performance hurdles requiring unique strategies by product category.

Functional challenges of next-gen sweeteners

Integrating next-generation sweeteners into product formulations is technically challenging. Meticulous optimisation to obtain the required sweetness potency, mouthfeel and stability is necessitated in most cases through the use of bulking agents or flavour enhancers.

Steviol glycoside mixtures like EverSweet (Reb M/Reb D) provide clean, intense sweetness with less bitterness and a lingering finish but are subject to careful sensory tuning for various applications. D-allulose replicates sucrose’s bulkiness, browning potential and participation in the Maillard reaction for use in bakery and dairy, but provides only ~70% sucrose sweetness and will need to be blended or co-sweetened to equal sugar profiles.

Tagatose provides ~90% sucrose sweetness and a very low GI (GI 3) and has prebiotic activity, but was previously hindered by manufacturing barriers until Bonumose’s enzymatic innovation. Polyols (eg. erythritol) provide bulk and taste modification, with erythritol’s cooling characteristic providing a refreshing mouthfeel, but with critical control of dose to avoid laxative properties, although generally fairly well tolerated relative to other polyols.

Aside from ingredient inherent confines in sensory and textural mimicry of sugar, developing consumer-ready products demands thoughtful selection and incorporation of bulking agents, stabilisers and flavour modifiers to fully substitute and replicate both sugar’s sensory and textural characteristics.

Formulation challenges in modern F&B systems

High-intensity sweeteners are without sucrose's functional and volumetric roles, so bulking agents such as maltodextrin, fibre or erythritol are necessary to substitute back in mouthfeel and texture in confectionery and baked goods.

Stevia is incapable of freezing-point depression and assisting protein denaturation in frozen products; inclusion of erythritol can counteract soft-serve texture impairment but also brings potential cooling and digestive concerns. CTSS (clean taste solubility solution) allows one-for-one sugar replacement without extra steps in formulating, but requires sweetener formulators to balance sweetness kinetics against flavour carriers to suppress remaining bitterness in complex product systems.

Sugar-like functionality of allulose eg. (browning, bulk and solubility) permits reduced-calorie use in caramels, breads and yogurts but necessitates careful regulation to avoid 'added sugar' exclusion. Prebiotic value and sucrose equivalency of tagatose facilitate gut-health positioning, although reduced sweetness potency and supply chain infancy will necessitate strategic blending and cost control. Novel sweet proteins such as brazzein offer new taste-modulation opportunities, but since they add no bulk, they are best utilised with bulking sweeteners to meet texture and process performance targets.

Regulatory considerations

EverSweet stevia, produced by Avansya (Cargill & DSM-Firmenich), received positive safety opinions from EFSA and UK FSA in January 2024, with final EU/UK authorisation approved in April 2025. Sweegen’s Ultratia brazzein secured FEMA GRAS status in May 2023, and Oobli’s precision-fermented brazzein obtained FDA GRAS (GRN 1142) in February 2024, validating broad general-purpose use by the US Food and Drug Administration.

Allulose earned FDA guidance to exclude it from 'Total' and 'Added Sugars' line items at 0.4 kcal/g in October 2020, streamlining labelling for reduced-calorie innovations. In contrast, D-allulose remains unapproved in Canada and the EU as of April 2025, constraining its global rollout. Tagatose’s prebiotic certification through ASR Group in 2024 reinforces functional-health positioning but lacks clear added-sugar exemptions, underscoring the need for future labelling harmonisation.

Next-generation sweeteners are redefining the nutritional and sensory architecture of modern food and beverage systems. Over the next five years, advances in synthetic biology, enzymatic engineering and precision fermentation will enhance the scalability, cost-efficiency and functionality of sweetener solutions. In parallel, advances in synbiotic and microbiome-focused sweetener development will open new pathways for gut-health-oriented formulations.

Beyond sugar reduction, the opportunity lies in building full-spectrum sweetener systems that align with clean label demands, regulatory requirements and functional nutrition trends. Companies that proactively integrate next-generation sweeteners into their R&D pipelines and product strategies will not only future-proof their portfolios but also capture growing consumer segments focused on wellness, transparency and sustainability.