Replacing clean label and specialty sweeteners are some of the toughest ingredients to substitute now.

“Clean label baked goods and those needed for sugar reduction/replacement formulations will be the most challenging sweeteners to source or replace due to their fairly recent successful introduction into bakery over the last decade,” said Melissa Riddell, head of innovation and technical services, Batory Foods. “These types of functional sweeteners are allulose, erythritol, stevia extracts, steviol glycosides and sweetener blends like Batory Sweet Essentials, making reducing or replacing sugar much simpler. However, with increasing consumer popularity, improved functionality in application and widening global regulatory approval, these ingredients are becoming easier to source.”

Depending on market conditions, lower volume specialty sweeteners can be harder to source than commodity ingredients, said Eric Shinsato, senior project leader, innovation and technical service, sweeteners, Ingredion.

“Climate and environmental conditions can have a significant impact on the availability of higher volume sweeteners from corn, sugar beets, sugar cane and stevia,” he said. “However, current supply chain issues and high ingredient demand seem to impact all types of sweeteners, specialty and commodity alike.”

As the demand for products with less sugar rises, so does the demand for the ingredients used in them, said Kyle Krause, Beneo product manager, functional fibers and carbohydrates, North America.

This article is an excerpt from the May 2022 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Sweeteners, click here.