Today, a rising number of consumers seem to be asking the same question: What’s in my food and beverage? Unfortunately, when you’re talking about sweeteners and sweetening solutions, the answer to this question can be summed up in one common phrase: it’s complicated. This is due to consumers’ enduring preference for time-honored sweeteners—e.g., honey and sugar—in an era in which public-health concerns about over-indulgence and the physiological effects of sugar are well documented.

The need to reduce sugar is not in dispute. Kerry’s global consumer research shows that 79 percent of global consumers now believe that reduced-sugar food and drinks are healthier than their full-sugar counterparts. Sugar has long been at the center of the public policy “healthy versus unhealthy” debate, and so more people have begun to actively question the volume of sugar in the foods and drinks they consume. Further, they want to learn about the ingredients being used to replace and displace sugar. People overall are now far more proactive in terms of seeking the right balance between reducing and replacing the sugar they consume. Their aim is a healthier lifestyle, and it’s a secular trend that appears unstoppable.

Reducing Sugar, Maintaining Taste

Consumers are already keenly aware of several important drawbacks to sugar: weight gain, habituation, blood-pressure elevation, increased risk of heart attack, liver disease and stroke, etc. Nonetheless, with taste still “king” in the food and beverage market, the inferior flavor of many reduced-sugar offerings remains the top barrier to enthusiastic adoption. In short, the public continues to place exceptional value on taste (and aftertaste), texture and mouthfeel. That makes it vital that manufacturers seeking to reduce sugar in their products to succeed not only in adding back the required sweetness, but also in maintaining the traditional texture and mouthfeel delivered by sugar.

In the drive to deliver lower-sugar alternatives, the perception issues just mentioned are rarely easy to overcome. Our survey results reveal that 64 percent of global consumers are of the opinion that sugar makes food and drinks “taste great.” Therefore, if a company reformulates to reduce sugar but then fails to replicate the full flavor and “sensation” of sugar, it is sure to be a problem for customers. In terms of fostering purchase decisions, it’s one thing for a manufacturer to take out sugar and something else entirely to do so without compromising product appeal. This complex challenge can benefit substantially from targeted applications expertise and assistance from ingredient suppliers.

Another interesting finding of our survey is that the consumer demand to reduce sugar is not uniform across all food and drinks: Sugar reduction is preferred in beverages first and in foods second. Among the various beverages, carbonated soft drinks take the top spot in the desire to reduce sugar, with the most accepted sweeteners being sugar/sucrose, stevia, aspartame, fructose, coconut sugar and honey. Interestingly, North Americans are the least likely to think that reduced-sugar food and drinks taste the same as (read: as good as) their full-sugar counterparts, so there is some work to be done to improve the perception of reduced-sugar beverages if more consumers are going to be won over.

Consumers Are Becoming More Proactive

Today, more than ever before, consumers want to know what’s in the products they consume, and they’ll make the effort to check out the level of sugar in their food and drinks; they’re also noting the ingredients used in place of refined sugar. Kerry research has uncovered three general groups of consumers motivated by goals around sugar, health and taste. There are the “reduced-sugar seekers”—those motivated by health and wellness; “zero-sugar advocates”—those who advocate for eliminating as much sugar as possible; and the “taste chasers”—those who don’t prioritize sugar reduction and are more concerned about taste and enjoyment. The same research revealed that 76 percent of global consumers believe knowing details about sweeteners is “important.” Also noteworthy: 77 percent indicate that the kind of sweeteners used in their food and beverages is “extremely important” information to them. Of course, there are a lot of variables in the reduced-sugar discussion, and consumers’ preferences can vary considerably depending on the food or drink in question.

Specifically, our research into beverage sweeteners found that natural choices are the most accepted, with artificial alternatives less favorable. Stevia was the most preferred additive in sparkling water, flavored water, kombucha, tea-based beverages and hard seltzers; in fact, more than 40 percent of global consumers who knew about stevia ranked it as their most preferred sweetener. Aspartame, although artificially sourced, was popular in energy drinks and carbonated soft drinks. The preference for these two sweeteners was significantly higher than any other in this category, even displacing honey—the top sweetener of choice globally.

In North America, carbonated soft drinks rank No. 1 in both the U.S. (39 percent) and Canada (45 percent) in terms of sugar-reduction goals. Next are juice or juice drinks (33 percent and 40 percent, respectively), followed by ready-to-drink canned cocktails (10 percent and 14 percent, respectively). Beverage sugar content is also ranked as highly important in countries across the Asia-Pacific region, Africa, Spain and Latin America, with Mexico, Nigeria, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, South Africa and Spain all recording above-index demand for reduced-sugar carbonated soft drinks.

It’s important to further note here that hot and cold indulgent coffee and botanical beverages are not immune to consumers’ sugar-content concerns. These drinks, which often contain considerable amounts of sugar, are experiencing increased scrutiny and drink makers need to seek ways to reduce those levels in the face of customer concerns.

Sustainability Another Growing Concern

Sustainability is another issue firmly on the minds of many consumers. This is especially true in younger age groups whose members are more willing to switch brands to support companies that make the effort to be “sustainable” in their manufacturing practices. Although it is not well known, refining sugar requires a great deal of water—from farm to fork—before it ever gets to the manufacturer or consumer. Therefore, reducing sugar in a product will lead not only to improved health outcomes, but also to reductions in water usage and CO2 production—and a higher likelihood of consumer acceptance by those for whom these savings hold value. Simply put, consumers, particularly those on the younger side, are becoming more diligent in seeking the right balance, both for their own health and for the environment. This is where front-of-pack claims pointing to reduced sugar content can be a winning ticket.

Sweetening Solutions: Building Back Taste Naturally in Sugar-reduced Products

As we already know, people love sweet foods and drinks and delight in the exciting, indulgent flavor experiences such products deliver. And that is precisely where things get tricky. Since the early ’80s, sweeteners have come a long way, and now—from “natural” to “high-intensity”—consumers have a lot of choice but relatively little information to educate them on each option’s benefits and downsides.

It should be of interest to food and beverage manufacturers that survey results have identified a high need for reduced-sugar solutions in consumers’ “mindless munching” indulgences—soft drinks, candies, gummies, sweet snacks and juice. For “intentional indulgences”—occasions triggered by the conscious consumer choice to indulge in ice cream/frozen yogurt, hard seltzers, beer, alcohol/spirits, etc.—the desire for reduced-sugar content is measurably lower.

The Kerry research also turned up key reasons why some consumers may not want reduced-sugar food and beverages at all. Half of all consumers surveyed eat everything “in moderation,” and this includes full-sugar foods and beverages. Just over a third (35 percent) said that they simply prefer the taste of sugar-sweetened products. For these groups, the biggest challenge is to adequately replicate the traditional texture and mouthfeel sugar has always been known to deliver throughout the entire drinking or eating process. Also noteworthy is that over one-third (36 percent) are concerned about the potential harmful effects of non-sugar sweeteners. Appealing to all three of these groups demands a firm commitment to delivering lower-sugar foods and beverages that uphold the sweetness, mouthfeel and texture these discerning consumers expect—and that is no simple task.

For those food and beverage manufacturers seeking to address growing consumer calls for reduced sugar content, one objective must take clear precedence: maintaining flavor and textural appeal. This also makes it imperative that ingredient suppliers contribute beneficial applications expertise to any reformulation efforts. Here at Kerry, we have a continuously expanding range of exciting natural, sustainable flavors and ingredients in our Tastesense Sweet, Plus and Advanced line of flavor-modulating solutions. These aids can support a significant reduction of sugar in a range of foods and beverages while keeping traditional taste and texture attributes top of mind. The time and effort expended to ensure a proper mix of ingredients will go a long way to satisfying a wider proportion of the buying public, and the addition of savvy product development and production completes the loop.

So, when consumers take that first sip or bite of your new sugar-reduced product, make sure the first answer to their “What’s in my food or beverage?” question is indisputable: great taste. NIE

Soumya Nair, Global Consumer Research and Insights Director, Kerry, leads the Insights discipline at Kerry, spearheading the company’s center of excellence in consumer research and insights. As the global director she leads intelligence and insights initiatives worldwide and leads a global team of researchers in studying the consumer and their future needs in nutrition, taste and sustainability.