Replacing the sugar

Replacing the sugar

As we’ve seen in our newsletter in March, sugar has a long history and has become increasingly important in many baking products due to their versatility and above all cheep ingredient. Although sugar isn’t always sugar… as there are many specifics and grades available it is still, despite the soaring prices of last year a relatively cheep ingredient. Replacing sugar whilst maintaining texture, structure, shelf life and evenly important recipe material cost the same seems to be a mission impossible: Technically we can create products with no added sugar, acceptable shelf life and potentially minor deviations on texture and structure; however the cost would go through the roof. Then although it is quite a technological challenge, the use of bulk and high intensity sweeteners are restrained in certain countries (amongst others E.U. member states):

Claims of sugar reduction on products

•       Authorized use of high intensity sweeteners are no longer justified in any fine bakery product
•        Sugar-free claims, 'may only be made where the product contains no more than 0,5 g of sugar per 100 g or 100 ml'.
•        With no added sugars claims 'may only be made where the product does not contain any added mono- or disaccharides or any other food used for its sweetening properties. If sugars are naturally present in the food, the following indication should also appear on the label: CONTAINS NATURALLY OCCURRING SUGARS'.
•        Low sugars claims 'may only be made where the product contains no more than 5g of sugar per 100 g for solids or 2,5 g of sugar per 100 ml for liquid'.
•        “reduced sugars”: a claim stating that the content in sugars has been reduced, and any claim likely to have the same meaning for the consumer, may only be made where the reduction in content is at least 30 % compared to a similar product. It may only be made if the amount of energy of the product bearing the claim is equal to or less than the amount of energy in a similar product (Regulation (EU) 1047/2012).
•        “energy-reduced”: a claim that a food is energy-reduced, and any claim likely to have the same meaning for the consumer, may only be made where the energy is reduced by at least 30 %, with an indication of the characteristic(s) which make(s) the food reduced in its total energy value.
•        Foods containing both an added sugar or sugars and a sweetener or sweeteners authorised pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 shall carry the statement 'with sugar(s) and sweetener(s)' as a statement that shall accompany the name of the food
•        Foods containing more than 10% added polyols authorised pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 (EC 2008, EU 2011) shall be labelled with the particular 'excessive consumption may produce laxative effects'. In addition, Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 (EU 2011) states that the energy value to be declared in the nutrition declaration shall be calculated using the conversion factors of 10 kJ/g - 2,4 kcal/g for polyols and 0 kJ/g - 0 kcal/g for erythritol.

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