13 patents in this list

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In the quest for healthier diets, sugar's unique texture and taste pose a significant challenge for creating alternatives. Sweeteners often fall short, lacking the granular feel and satisfying mouthfeel that sugar provides. This discrepancy can affect the sensory experience, crucial in foods like baked goods and confections, where texture is as important as flavor.

Professionals in the food industry face the task of replicating sugar's sensory properties without its caloric impact. The challenge lies in balancing sweetness, texture, and functionality, ensuring that substitutes perform well in diverse culinary applications. Achieving this requires careful formulation and innovative use of ingredients.

This page offers insights into various solutions. These include low-calorie coated bulking agents, oligosaccharide-based sweeteners, and enzymatic production techniques that enhance mouthfeel. These approaches aim to deliver sugar-like texture and taste, supporting the creation of healthier, yet satisfying, food products.

1. Coated Bulking Agent Particles with Crystalline Sugar for Fat-Based Food Products

Cargill, Incorporated, 2023

Low calorie coated bulking agent particles for fat-based food products that provide calorie reduction without sacrificing taste and mouthfeel. The particles are made by coating a bulking agent like spent coffee grounds or whey protein with a composition of sugar and surface active agent. The coating contains mostly crystalline sugar which retains the organoleptic properties of sugar. The particles can replace sugar in confections to reduce calories while maintaining rheology and taste.

2. Sugar Substitute Composition with Isomaltulose, Erythritol, Inulin, and Stevia Glycosides

hello sweety ag, 2023

A sugar substitute that can be used as a complete replacement for sugar in baked goods and confectionery with the same taste and texture as sugar. It consists of isomaltulose, erythritol, inulin, and stevia glycosides in specific proportions.

3. Multiphase Foodstuff Incorporating Oligosaccharide and Monosaccharide/Disaccharide Sweetener Composition

Cambridge Glycoscience Ltd, 2022

Combining an oligosaccharide sweetener like cello-oligosaccharides with a monosaccharide or disaccharide sugar in a multiphase foodstuff to create lower calorie sweet foods. The oligosaccharide phase can replace some or all of the traditional sugar in the food item, while the sugar phase provides sweetness like frosting, filling, or coating.

4. Food Products with Rare Sugar-Based Sweetener Composition to Mitigate Syneresis

CORN PRODUCTS DEVELOPMENT, INC., 2022

Reduced-sugar food products that perform well and don't exhibit syneresis. The products contain a sugar reduction solution of rare sugars like allulose and xylo-oligosaccharides that replace some or all of the nutritive sweeteners like sucrose. This reduces sugar and calories while providing functional build back properties similar to sugar.

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5. Process for Producing Oligosaccharide-Polysaccharide Mixtures from Plant Biomass via Pretreatment and Enzymatic Conversion

CAMBRIDGE GLYCOSCIENCE LTD, 2022

Producing low-calorie, high-fiber, sugar-replacement ingredients for food, cosmetics, and nutraceuticals, using a combination of pretreatment steps and enzymatic reactions on plant biomass. The process involves isolating soluble polysaccharides from the biomass, then treating the remaining biomass with enzymes to form oligosaccharides. A portion of the isolated soluble polysaccharides is combined with the oligosaccharides to create the ingredient. The resulting compositions contain a mixture of oligosaccharides with specific degree of polymerization ranges and monosaccharides/disaccharides, along with reduced amounts of insoluble polysaccharides compared to the original biomass.

6. Pectin and Xanthan Gum Blend with Defined Molecular Weight Ranges for Mouthfeel Modification

PepsiCo, Inc., 2021

A composition to improve mouthfeel in beverages and foods containing high intensity sweeteners like stevia. The composition includes a pectin and a xanthan gum blend with specific molecular weight ranges. The pectin has an average molecular weight of 50,000 to 400,000 Da, and the xanthan gum has an average molecular weight of 3,000,000 to 35,000,000 Da. The pectin/xanthan blend enhances mouthfeel in products with potent non-nutritive sweeteners to provide a more desirable perception and texture.

7. Cotton Candy Composition Utilizing Polydextrose, Isomaltose, and Stevia

Zukara SA de CV, 2021

Sucrose-free cotton candy composition with a sweet taste but without sucrose to make cotton candy that is lower in calories and better for people with diabetes or cardiovascular issues. The composition uses polydextrose as a fiber carrier, isomaltose to regulate crystallization, and stevia as a sweetener.

8. Dairy Composition with Steviol Glycoside Integration for Fermented Product

THE DANNON COMPANY, INC., 2020

Sweetened dairy product that tastes like sugar but has reduced calories. The product contains at least one steviol glycoside sweetener like stevia extract. The steviol glycosides are added to a dairy composition like milk and fermented into a dairy product like yogurt.

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9. Comestible Coating Composition with Maltotriose, Maltotetrose, and High-Potency Sweeteners

General Mills, Inc., 2019

Reduced sugar coating for breakfast cereal and other comestibles that has similar properties to sugar coatings but with less sugar. The coating composition includes maltotriose, maltotetrose, and high-potency sweeteners like stevia to replace some of the sucrose.

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10. Food Product Coating with Reduced Sugar Content Comprising Gum Arabic, Maltodextrin, and Crystallized Sweeteners

Chew LLC, 2018

Reduced sugar coating for food products like cereals that provides sweetness, bulk, and frosted appearance similar to full sugar coatings. The coating composition uses a combination of ingredients like gum arabic, maltodextrin, calcium carbonate, salt, sweeteners like stevia, thaumatin, and/or monk fruit extract, edible oil, water. The coating is applied to the food and crystallized to mimic frosted sugar coatings.

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11. Baked Goods Formulation Using Low and High Molecular Weight Carbohydrate Blend

NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST-NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNO, 2018

Reducing sugar content in baked goods without sacrificing texture and taste by replacing sugar with a combination of specific low and high molecular weight carbohydrates. The combination of polyols like sorbitol with higher molecular weight carbohydrates like oligosaccharides and fibers maintains organoleptic properties when compared to sugar. The total bulk carbohydrate molecular weight is in the range of 150-400 g/mol.

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12. Edible Composite Particles with Non-Uniform Coating for Sensory Mimicry

Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas LLC, 2018

Free-flowing edible compositions that mimic the sensory experience of ingredients like salt and sugar while reducing the actual amount consumed. The compositions have controllable properties of bulk density, particle morphology, flowability and shakeability. They consist of composite particles where a core of a first edible material is coated with non-uniformly sized particles of a second edible material. These composite particles are blended with additional particles of the second material. This allows the second material to be reduced while still providing the desired taste intensity and temporal profile.

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13. Granular Sugar Product with Embedded High Potency Sweeteners via Solution Coating Method

NutraEx Food Inc., 2018

Enhanced sweetener with imbedded, high potency sweeteners like aspartame, stevia, etc. This provides a granular sugar product that is sweeter than regular sugar due to the added high potency sweeteners. The process involves dissolving the high potency sweetener in warm water, then mixing that solution with heated sugar granules, and drying the mixture.

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