Low-calorie sugar demand: Ingredion opens new allulose facility in Mexico

13 Nov 2019 --- Ingredient solution provider Ingredion has inaugurated its first allulose production plant in San Juan del Río, Mexico. In partnership with Japan-based Mastutani Chemical Industry, the company will market and sell its manufactured sweetener Astraea Allulose, a Matsutani trademark, across the Americas and Asia. The ingredient is touted as a low-calorie sweetener with a similar taste profile to sugar, helping sugar-conscious consumers reduce their sugar consumption.

“Avoiding sugar is a major consumer trend and the potential is huge. At our Mexico facility, Ingredion will manufacture Astraea Allulose, which will be marketed and sold across the Americas by Ingredion. In addition to licensing certain allulose-related intellectual property to Ingredion, Matsutani will market and sell ASTRAEA Allulose across most of Asia,” Nate Yates, Global Platform Leader, Sugar Reduction, Ingredion, tells NutritionInsight.

In December 2018, Ingredion entered into a relationship with Matsutani, a Japanese producer of specialty ingredients. The partnership will mean greater competition for Tate & Lyle in the Americas, where the latter company offers its Dolcia Prima allulose product. 

Astraea alulose is suitable for a wide range of applications, including beverages, dairy, baking and confectionary.“By combining our manufacturing network and global footprint alongside Matsutani's pioneering work in rare sugars, we will bring exciting opportunities grounded in innovation to meet the needs of the evolving food industry,” Yates affirms. 

Astraea Allulose is set to hit the markets in the Americas and Asia in both liquid and crystalline forms.

Natural product
Allulose is one of the many types of monosaccharides that naturally exist in small quantities in its rare sugar form. It can be found in certain fruits, such as figs, raisins and jackfruit but also in wheat. Allulose’s texture and performance behavior are similar to sucrose, providing comparable bulk, sweetness and functionality. These properties make it an ideal ingredient for formulators as they look for ways to reduce calories from sucrose in the products they develop, including prepared foods such as ketchup.

Astraea Allulose is produced by enzymatic conversion of fructose through a proprietary process developed in collaboration with Kagawa University. It boasts a clean, sweet taste without a bitter aftertaste. With a caloric value as low as 0.2 kcal/g, the ingredient solution is used in food and beverage applications to replace typical full-calorie sugars, such as sucrose and high fructose corn syrup to help regulate sugar intake. 

Astraea Allulose is generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA further indicated that allulose is well-tolerated and does not affect blood glucose levels. In Spring 2019, the FDA allowed food manufactures to exclude allulose from total and added sugar counts on Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels. Combined with its GRAS certification, this has increased interest in including allulose in food products instead of sucrose. 

Allulose has the potential to change the way companies in the food and beverage industry think about sweeteners in their products. Industry’s take on sugar reduction
Reducing sugar intake remains a top priority for consumers. According to Ingredion’s Consumer Market Research conducted in 2016, 74 percent of Mexicans believe it’s important to reduce their sugar consumption in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. This echoes the results from an Innova Market Insights Consumer Lifestyle and Attitudes Survey from 2018, indicating that nearly 7 out of 10 consumers surveyed across the globe (US, UK, France, Germany, China and Brazil) have reduced their sugar intake. 

Another recent innovation for the US and Canadian markets is Versasweet, a low-sugar glucose syrup, says Yates. “Versasweet low-sugar glucose syrups enable manufacturers of confectionery, dairy, ice cream and baked good products to achieve reduced grams of sugar on the Nutrition Facts panel. To do so, we formulate with low-sugar corn- or tapioca-based glucose syrups that, compared to standard glucose syrups, have a lower percentage of mono- and disaccharides,” Yates explains.

Allulose has also appeared in recent NPD. In the beverage space, Fuze Meyer Lemon Black Tea and Fuze Tropical Mango Green Tea in the US are one example of allulose NPD, featuring a proprietary sweetener blend consisting of sugar, allulose and stevia leaf extract.

Meanwhile, in the snack sector, US-based start-up Zeno Nutrition launched its diabetic- and keto-friendly bars, marketed by the brand as being the first vegan energy bars explicitly targeting individuals with low-glucose goals. Using allulose as a sweetener and being free from gluten, soy, dairy and GMOs allow the bars to tap into a booming market of natural and free-from foods. 

By Anni Schleicher