Sweet desserts have always been popular, and as consumers pursue nutrition and health, they now try to avoid high-sugar products in their daily lives. Despite this, the "invisible sugar" lurking in products still catches people off guard, such as baked products, barbecue seasonings, condiments, desserts and cooked meat products, which can all be carriers of sugar. Now, more and more food manufacturers have begun to try various methods to achieve the goal of reducing sugar in their brand products.

However, it is not easy to truly reduce sugar content in product development. When reducing the sugar content in a product, it is often necessary to replace or compound other raw materials to preserve the taste of the product. Therefore, in this process, more natural and healthier sweeteners will be more in line with consumers' tastes.

As we all know, sugar is a common functional ingredient in most foods, and it also has the attributes of multifunctionality and low cost. It is worth noting that, in addition to conventional foods, some functional foods and beverages that claim to be beneficial to the human body actually have excessive sugar content, such as protein bars, energy drinks, chewable vitamin gummies, etc. The FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) new label design bill for food nutrients is about to be implemented, and this bill will affect consumers' purchasing patterns. Many functional food and beverage manufacturers are also trying new formulas to reduce product calories and sugar content. In this process, a large number of artificial sweeteners will be eliminated, and the natural sweetener market will usher in a new development climax.

In May 2016, the FDA announced that it would begin implementing a new food nutrition labeling law in July 2018, requiring food processing companies to label the sugar content added during the production process and the sugar content in each serving of the product, and establish a daily reference nutritional value (DRV) for consumers' daily intake reference. This nutrition labeling law applies to traditional foods and dietary supplement products.

The labeling law promulgated by the FDA has been recognized by scientific nutrition organizations, and many scientific research documents have also pointed out that American consumers need to reduce their calorie intake from added sugar. This recommendation is also supported by many authoritative organizations, including the American Heart Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Academy of Medicine and the World Health Organization.

The FDA also pointed out that "added sugar" refers to sugar added during food processing or appears in packaged products, including sugar (free sugar, monosaccharide, disaccharide), sugar from syrup and honey, concentrated fruit juice and vegetable juice, etc. It should be noted that the sugar content of concentrated fruit and vegetable juice is much higher than the sugar content of the same amount of fruit and vegetable juice. In addition, the scope of added sugar has been further expanded to include brown sugar, corn sweeteners, invert sugar, maltose, syrup, and some "natural sugars": separated sugar, sugar cane juice extract, brown rice extract, agave syrup, barley malt extract, black sugar, palm and coconut syrup, etc. On the other hand, although the FDA has made a specific classification of added sugar, it has not given a clear standard for measuring sugar content. Product developers are in urgent need of a clear guidance document because there is currently no clear way to determine the sugar content in food and beverages.

Currently, the sugar content in functional products varies, with beverages containing 15% or more sugar, energy bars containing 30% sugar or 16g per 50g, protein bars and energy drinks containing 23% and 30% sugar respectively. After the implementation of the labeling law, many manufacturers will sacrifice the taste of functional products to achieve the goal of reducing sugar.

However, it is difficult to actually implement sugar reduction. Product formulators need to achieve the goal of reducing sugar without sacrificing the taste of the product, while also ensuring the consistency of functionality of the end product. Considering the impact of sugar on the volume and taste of the product, it accounts for 8% to 10% of the trace ingredients in the beverage formula, while the proportion of high-intensity sweeteners that replace sugar is relatively small. High-intensity sweeteners can replace the use of sugar, but the taste will be affected. In general, the taste of the product is very complex. When removing sugar from the ingredients, it is often necessary to add a variety of raw materials or flavors to make up for it, and a coordinated situation needs to be achieved before consumers can refresh their taste experience of the food again.

In addition, the product should focus on taste, texture, appearance and overall image to ensure sufficient appeal to consumers. Therefore, the current challenge is to find natural ingredients that cater to consumer habits while reducing the sugar content in the product.