Sugar substitute market awaits the next "C position"

Not long ago, Nai Xue's tea announced the full use of natural monk fructose in its stores, aiming to seek differentiation from sugar substitutes
.
At present, Luo Han Fructose has been fully applied to freshly made tea drinks and bottled fruit tea
in Naixue stores.
What are the characteristics of the monk fructose that Naixue announced? What changes will this bring to the sugar substitute industry?

Consumer awareness of monk fruit

According to Nai Xue, the sweetness of monk fructose comes from monk fruit glycosides
.
Monk fruit glycoside belongs to 0 calorie natural sugar substitute, the sweetness is 300 times that of sucrose, and with the own fragrance of monk fruit, the taste is fuller, no peculiar taste, astringency, other sugar substitutes can play a role in taste modification and optimization, high stability, more suitable for use
in tea.
From the aspects of health, taste and other aspects, "monk fruit glycosides" are excellent
.

In fact, in North American organic natural food and beverages, the use rate of monk fruit has been very high, generally in the form of monk fruit extract, monk fruit powder, monk fruit juice and other forms added to food and beverages, can be directly labeled as "monk fruit / monk fruit extract" (monk fruit/monk fruit extract), as a natural raw material in food, not limited by the amount of addition
.
It is understood that in the North American market, monk fruit has a market growth rate of more than
20% for two consecutive years.
In 2021, monk fruit grew by 20% in the North American market, with the most used categories being protein supplements/meal replacements, frozen desserts, and nutrition bars and gels; The fastest-growing categories are yogurt, main courses and desserts
.

As one of China's endemic plants, 90% of the world's monk fruit is currently produced in Guangxi, China, which is also the world's largest producer and exporter
of monk fruit and extract.
The United States is the largest consumer of monk fructosides
.

Health effects of monk fruit

As the earliest batch of approved "medicinal and edible dual-use substances", in China, monk fructosides for food sweeteners have also been approved
.
In addition, the official authorities of Canada, Japan, Singapore and other countries have also recognized the safety of monk fruit, and it can be consumed by children, diabetics, pregnant women and nursing
mothers.
Studies have shown that monk fruit extract is able to reduce oxidative stress and blood sugar levels, and increase HDL cholesterol levels
.
In addition, monk fruit glycosides do not affect the intestinal flora, but can promote the increase of
beneficial bacteria.

The study also confirmed the prebiotic action
of sweeteners composed of galacto-oligosaccharides and monk fruit glycosides.
Galacto-oligosaccharides are functional oligosaccharides, but the sweetness is very low, can not be used as a separate sweetener, in order to increase the sweetness, the researchers added enzymatic modified monk fruit glycosides, the combination of the two not only flavor and sweetness is very similar to sucrose, but also increase the content of beneficial bacteria strains such as lactobacillus and Clostridium globulus in the intestine, as well as beneficial metabolites produced by bacteria such as butyrate, propionate and acetate, with very obvious prebiotic properties
.

In addition to being commonly used in food and beverages, monk fruit is also a common sweetener
for ketogenic products.
Monk fruit combined with other sweeteners, such as stevia, has a good synergistic effect, which can improve taste and improve cost performance; After compounding with functional sugar alcohols such as erythritol, the taste is better, and the texture can be improved, and the sweetness is similar to sucrose, which is in line with consumption habits; When combined with functional dietary fiber such as inulin, it can improve taste and promote intestinal health; Compounded with functional monosaccharides/oligosaccharides such as allulose and trehalose, it can further enhance the taste and is very suitable for adding to baked
goods.

Extraction techniques still need to be improved

It is understood that as early as November 2021, Naixue and suppliers began to jointly develop monk fructose
suitable for ready-made drinks.
After more than a dozen iterations, in August this year, the R&D team identified the first generation of applied monk fructose in the Naixintl laboratory, and continued to debug it in the later stage, and it took nearly a year before the official launch of monk fructose
.

According to the person in charge of Nai Xue's tea, in the research and development process, it is necessary to achieve the standard of 0 sugar and 0 calories, and to ensure the fullness of the taste of monk sugar; In addition, the application of monk fructose can not affect the flavor release of fruit tea, milk tea and even pure tea itself, and taking into account these aspects is the biggest difficulty in research and development
.
Due to technical and cost constraints, monk fruit glycosides have not been widely used in tea products
.

According to Zhou Zhan, marketing director of Huacheng Biologics in the whole industry chain layout of monk fruit, unlike some sugar substitutes with a bitter taste, monk fruit glycosides have a post-sweetness, which makes it better complementary
in taste with the sour taste of fruits added to tea when blending tea.

"At present, the user reputation is more positive
.
" The above-mentioned person in charge of Naixue also proves the use prospects
of monk fruit glycosides.
Chinese food industry analyst Zhu Danpeng said that natural sweeteners represented by monk fruit glycosides are superior to popular artificial sweetener products
in terms of quality and consumer acceptance.

Many people in the industry also believe that the promotion of Luohan fructose products in Naixue's tea has made more people have more understanding of sugar substitutes, and the follow-up of different industries is undoubtedly good for the sugar substitute industry
.
However, the widespread use of monk fructose still has great difficulties
.
First of all, the extraction technology of monk fructoside needs to be updated, and it is necessary to extract mogroside with higher purity in order to be more favored
by the market.
In addition, the content of monk fructoside is about 1%, and how to increase the content of monk fructoside through new variety breeding will also be the focus of
the industry.

Who will stand in the next sugar substitute "C" position

According to the Star Map Data "Sugar-free Beverage Development Analysis Report", in 2021, the penetration rate of sugar-free beverages in soft drinks in China was 4.
07%, and it is expected to reach 15%
by 2025.
This also means that in the context of healthy eating, sugar reduction has become a trend
.
Sugar substitutes are becoming increasingly important
for the new tea industry.

After Genki Forest opened up new markets with sugar substitute erythritol in 2020, new tea brands are also taking action
.
Coupled with the pursuit of healthy eating, China's sugar substitute market obviously has great
potential.
In Zhou Zhan's view, in addition to beverages, there are also many opportunities
for the application of sugar substitutes in other fields.

One is table sugar, that is, table cooking sugar substitutes directly for families instead of white sugar
.
According to the "Sugar Intake Level and Risk Assessment of Urban Residents in China", the primary source of daily sugar intake of Chinese residents is cooking sugar
.
Replacing sugar substitutes can effectively reduce sugar intake, and sugar packs are now increasingly recognized
by consumers on the American table.

Second, in the field of baking, such as monk fruit juice concentrate or monk fruit syrup, and D-allulose, which was accepted by the National Health Commission as a new food raw material in August 2021, are suitable for use
in bakery products.
Because it has the Maillard reaction that other sugar substitutes do not have, it can ferment and color baking products, and in the future, these sugar substitutes have broader prospects
in the field of baking.

With consumers' pursuit of healthy eating, the sugar substitute market clearly has great
potential.
Who will replace erythritol as the next sugar substitute "star"? The market is constantly being tested
.

(Yang Xiaojing, comprehensive collation)

China Food News(Version 06, December 26, 2022)

(Responsible editor: Yang Xiaojing)