Yeast extract is a powerful ingredient in sugar reduction

If consumers have a sweet tooth, the trend is to reduce sugar! Despite their love for it, consumers consciously know they must reduce their consumption of sugar. Manufacturers face a major challenge: offering sugar-reduced tasty products without changing the organoleptic properties. All while meeting the consumers’ expectations in terms of naturalness and clean labeling. Yeast extract will certainly help them to take up this challenge!

Sugar is a controverted ingredient in diets

In 2016, 39% of the world’s adult population was overweight (1.9 billion adults) and figures are increasing every year. Worldwide obesity has even tripled since 1975¹! Additionally, diseases such as diabetes are a growing concern: 8.5% of the world’s population is diabetic².

Alarming figures raise consumers awareness of the need to reduce their daily sugar intake. Consequently, food manufacturers launched + 95% of new products with “sugar free” or “sugar reduced” claims between 2013 and 2018³. The most appealing claim for consumers when choosing food and drinks is “naturally sweetened” (25%), closely followed by “free from artificial sweeteners” (24%) and “sugar free” (21%)⁴.

This trend joins the World Health Organization recommendations to adjust to a maximum of 25 gr per day of sugars (for both adults and children)⁵. Therefore, food products and drinks need severe reformulation to keep the good taste.

Facing the industrial challenge of sugar reduction

Food manufacturers must adapt their recipes in order to cater to consumers who are more and more concerned with their health while maintaining the same taste in their products.

Reducing sugar is not as easy as it seems. Sugar positively impacts several features in recipes such as viscosity, stability, solubility and storage. Usually sugar alternatives are numerous but with defects: sweeteners have image issues, natural sugars have a caloric intake similar to sucrose, aromas add an additional flavor note and fibers have a low sweetening power.

Typically, sweet products are not the only ones affected by sugar reduction. The list of savory products containing sugar is extensive: ketchup, soups, vinaigrettes, sauces, pizzas, etc.  This unavoidable ingredient is essential for aromatic purposes and as a corrector of bitterness or acidity. It also prevents meat oxidation and boost flavors or colors.

Yeast extract: a natural⁶ solution to provide healthier products with great taste

Yeast extract is a tiny ingredient with great power! In response to this sugar challenge food manufacturers are facing, Biospringer offers many solutions with a wide range of yeast-based ingredients. And each has its own properties in sugar reduction:

• Reveals richness and brings out the taste of some ingredients such as eggs, vanilla, chocolate… and thus helps reduce sugar in formula.
• Brings out brown flavor notes like roasted, cocoa or malted to bring a round and long-lasting flavor.
• Provides umami taste (the fifth taste) and brings the feeling of mouthfulness to help reduce sugar by improving the overall taste of the recipe.
• Adds subtle cereal notes and provides a sweet sensation in mouth without adding sugar.
• Neutralizes undesirable metallic or licorice aftertastes and lingering effect brought by sweeteners use.

Like spices, yeast ingredients are easy to use and it does not take much to help maintain the balanced taste of reduced-sugar products.

Biospringer provides food and drink manufactures with great solutions to reduce sugar by up to 30% in recipes: an interesting way to give consumers healthier products and fulfilling their expectations.

To get more insights,

Biospringer is a specialist of yeast extract. It is recognized worldwide as an historical key player and global producer. Its expertise through teams of technologists, flavorists and experts tasting panels ensure a total safety and a high quality of all the products manufactured and sold in the world. Besides, its global network of Culinary centers is dedicated to customers to find technical solutions in order to bring good taste to their recipes. Biospringer is strongly committed to meet both consumers’ and producers’ expectations by guaranteeing high quality standards and offering various additional benefits in line with the current natural, vegan and clean label food trends.

1. World Health Organization, fact sheet on obesity and overweight, October 2017
2. World Health Organization, fact sheet on diabetes, November 2017
3. Mintel GNPD, 2019. Number of products launched with «Low/reduced sugar», «sugar free» or «no added sugar» as the claim between 2013 and 2018
4. GlobalData’s Q4 2017 global consumer survey
5. World Health Organization, Sugar intake for adults and children – Guideline, 2015
6. According to ISO TS19657