Ingredient opportunities keep bursting into the sweetener category this year for food and beverage companies seeking new ways to reduce sugar in products. The opportunities come in the forms of new blends, line extensions and company partnerships. They frequently involve stevia plant extracts and monk fruit extracts, two high-intensity sweeteners perceived as natural.
Ryan Turner, a private chef from Great Britain, experimented with different sweeteners, including stevia and monk fruit, for five years in developing Sola, said Michael Servie, president of The Sola Co., Houston.
Sugarlike sweeteners have been shown to work in beverages, baked foods, confectionery items, dairy items, supplements and table-top sweeteners, he said. Some lines of Sugarlike are organic, and the company also produces some Sugarlike sweeteners that are Non-GMO Project verified.