A healthier chocolate? Try Stevia!

Survey data released by Mintel in 2021 shows that more than 60% of American consumers want to buy healthier chocolate." An article recently published by "Confectionery News" (hereinafter referred to as CN) mentioned this. Confectionery News is one of the world's most trusted outlets for the dessert and confectionery industry, with more than 60,000 monthly readers.

This interview about using natural sweeteners in candies gives the author’s solution (to make chocolate healthier): choose stevia, a natural plant source.

Top 10 sweeteners for confectionery applications, stevia the only positive growth

According to the CN article, as health awareness increases, more and more consumers are looking to reduce their intake of sucrose. Traditional chocolate is being replaced by "high calorie, high fat, high sweetness". In the global market, major confectionery companies have launched sugar-free and low-sugar products to comply with the trend of sugar reduction, and in July 2019, the domestic brand "Daily Dark Chocolate" will be launched, successfully breaking through with "healthy and low-calorie"; in 2020, Cadbury's reduced-sugar version of chocolate will replace 30% of sugar in the original product with corn fiber; Rakuten's Zero series chocolate, replacing all cane sugar with dietary fiber and lactose, and using sweeteners to provide sweetness.

According to the CN article, as health awareness increases, more and more consumers are looking to reduce their intake of sucrose. Traditional chocolate is being replaced by "high calorie, high fat, high sweetness". In the global market, major confectionery companies have launched sugar-free and low-sugar products to comply with the trend of sugar reduction, and in July 2019, the domestic brand "Daily Dark Chocolate" will be launched, successfully breaking through with "healthy and low-calorie"; in 2020, Cadbury's reduced-sugar version of chocolate will replace 30% of sugar in the original product with corn fiber; Rakuten's Zero series chocolate, replacing all cane sugar with dietary fiber and lactose, and using sweeteners to provide sweetness.

Sweetener use for sugar reduction products

According to Innova data, the number of new product launches with sugar reduction-related claims worldwide has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 11.5% over the past 10 years. Among them, the number of products using stevia has grown rapidly, with a CAGR of about 20.68%, almost twice the average. In the last five years, about a quarter of the products related to sugar reduction use stevia, which is the most widely used natural sweetener. In the confectionery industry, the use of stevia has increased by 137%, despite the relatively stable number of new sugar-reduced product launches each year. Among the top 10 sweeteners used in sugar-reduced confectionery worldwide in the last 5 years, stevia is the only one that has achieved positive growth (CAGR = 9.47%).

Candy with reduced sugar? No loss of sweetness! The CN report also said that increased consumer concern about healthy candy means that many innovative companies will be developing new sugar-reduced products that reduce the sucrose content while maintaining the flavor of the product, allowing consumers to enjoy the taste while reducing the burden on their bodies. Although synthetic sweeteners are the earliest and most used type of sweetener in the market, their safety has raised many questions worldwide in recent years. Therefore, natural sweeteners derived from plants, including stevioside and rosmarinic acid, are becoming more popular among consumers and are becoming the preferred choice for more "sugar-free" products. Stevioside, as a natural phytogenic high sweetener, can be used together with erythritol, allulose, soluble fiber and other fillers to maximize the taste and flavor of the product.

Stevia offered by Zancheng life sciences is stable in taste, pure and with little bitterness. At the same time, we have accumulated experience in the compounding of multiple monoglycosides of stevia, which can optimize the taste of traditional steviol glycosides and improve the cost performance; we can also provide the most suitable solution according to the taste and characteristics needs of different products.