Food & Beverage Asia February/March 2020

Tate & Lyle develops a variety of ingredients for foods and beverages manufacturers that
harness the health benefits of fibre, giving consumers the taste and texture they enjoy
important to ensure that the amount of
energy ingested matches the amount of
energy required.
He elaborated, “Consuming fibre can
improve the blood glucose response –
by controlling large variations in blood
glucose throughout the day – and help
reduce the risk of, or manage existing
cases of, Type 2 diabetes.
“Low- or no-calorie sweeteners have the
common characteristic of being intensely
sweet compounds. This means that they
are several hundred times sweeter than
table sugar, and only very small quantities
are needed to achieve the desired level
of sweetness in foods and drinks, while
contributing very few or no calories at all
to the final product. They also have the
benefits of not affecting blood glucose
levels, and of being kind to teeth.”
Substituting sugar for the better?
It is arguably impossible to completely
eliminate sugar within regular diet.
On a national level, governments have
encouraged the consumption of no and low
sugar options as they seek to meet stricter
standards and respond to the growing
diabetes epidemic, as well as poor dietary
choices and other forms of malnutrition.
To further curb the consumption of high
sugar-added products, some countries
have even imposed sugar tax.
Commenting on the impact of sugar
tax on the food and beverage industry,
Harry Boot, President, Asia-Pacific, Food
and Beverage Solutions, Tate & Lyle,
said, “We welcome efforts to encourage
healthy eating, reverse the obesity trend,
and tackle the growing incidence of Type
2 diabetes. We are following closely how
this tax will affect consumer behaviour, and
believe it could help enable change, but are
of the view that a multi-pronged approach
will be key to achieve real impact.
“For food suppliers, reformulation will be
important to maintain profit margins where
a sugar tax has been imposed. Our sugar
replacement ingredients can help them to
reduce the sugar content of their products
– without compromising on taste – and
thus reduce their tax burden.”
And on the consumer level, consumers
are increasingly looking for healthier
options that still deliver great taste. As
they become more educated about diet
and nutrition, they want to have access
to products that enable them to eat well.
While there are many alternatives to sugar
that maintain taste and sweetness, Boot
pointed out that fibre will continue to play
an important role in reducing sugar in foods
and beverages in response to consumer
demand and calls from regulators and
health authorities. He explained that the
food and beverage industry has been
using fibre more for its sugar replacement
capability than its enrichment properties;
however, the growing consumer awareness
of fibre’s health benefits is driving the
demand for enriched products, and brands
are responding.
For instance, Tate & Lyle provides a
range of sweeteners, such as fructose
and allulose, as well as other ingredients
that deliver on sugar’s other qualities
besides sweetness, such as mouthfeel,
bulking, caramelisation or freezing point
depression.
Particularly allulose, the sweetening
ingredient comes with the taste and
functionality of sugar with “negligible
calories and no impact on blood sugar”,
Boot claimed, and further described
allulose as the “game-changer” when it
comes to sugar reduction, as it delivers all
the functional as well as sensory qualities
of sugar.
He elaborated, “This ingredient is opening
up sugar reduction solutions in categories
and applications that have until now, been
very difficult to solve using high-intensity
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA FEBRUARY / MARCH 2020