Who is the next raw material for sugar replacement potential stocks?

With the continuous increase of people's health awareness, natural sweeteners based on stevia, erythritol, Luo Han Guo, and allulose are increasingly attracting market attention, and more and more in the fields of beverages, snacks, nutritional supplements, etc.

Erythritol: the "dark horse" of the sugar substitute market

According to statistics released by the research institute Sullivan, from 2020 to 2024, the global market demand for erythritol will continue to grow, with an average annual growth rate of 22.

Erythritol is a four-carbon sugar alcohol that exists in a variety of foods, such as grapes, pears, watermelons, etc.

Erythritol is an odorless white crystalline raw material that dissolves rapidly in water to form a transparent, low-viscosity, colorless solution

In the early days, the market popularity of erythritol was not very high, and it was often used as a compound raw material for stevia

Continued growth in demand in the global market has resulted in a very tight supply of erythritol at present

Some analysts believe that the reasons for the tight supply of erythritol mainly include the following aspects: First, the demand of consumers to reduce sugar

As the main supply market of erythritol in the world, China's erythritol is currently in short supply

Allulose: The Rising Star of Sugar Substitutes

D-psicose, also known as D-psicose, is a rare sugar found in plants in small amounts

The small amount of psicose present in plants is far from meeting the consumer demand of the market.

It is understood that from June 2020 to June 2021, many well-known food and beverage brands around the world added allulose to their products

　　Global allulose supplier Tailai said that due to the huge current market demand, more products will be produced as soon as possible to meet the market demand

　　The functional sugar production enterprise Shandong Bailong Chuangyuan has laid out the allulose industry

The future: new product development faces severe challenges

　　The high-intensity sweetener market has grown since 2018, with a 12% year-over-year increase in 2019

　　Sweetener suppliers are under intense pressure to provide the right solution, with many introducing new programs that combine high-intensity, rare and low-intensity sweeteners

　　New product development is key to the sweetener business

　　Sweetener manufacturers are under intense new product development pressure to provide formulators with the right solutions around taste, texture, cleanliness and price requirements
.
Typically, a company takes 12-18 months to develop any new process or product with new ingredients
.
In addition, large-scale commercialization of a new sweetener product has been relatively slow
.
Currently, some sweetener manufacturers are researching rare sugars, such as fucose, kojibiose, cellobiose, brown sugar, etc.
, but they are still in the research stage, and the main challenges they face are product feasibility and formulation requirements
.
And natural sweeteners such as allulose are still untapped territory for many manufacturers, with a bright future ahead
.

　　Of course, the raw materials for sugar substitutes are far more than that.
The development of future technology will always exceed current people's cognition.
In the end, which type of sugar substitute, which type of beverage, and which brands will occupy the market may depend on a variety of factors.
superimposed effects
.

　　(Comprehensive arrangement by Yang Xiaojing)

"China Food News" (06 edition on October 18, 2021)

(Editor-in-charge: Yang Xiaojing)