In today’s economy, the confectionery industry overall is doing reasonably well, but sugar-free confectionery is experiencing a lull—with the exception of sugar-free chewing gum, which continues to see double-digit increases in sales year after year. We can, however, expect to see sugar-free and reduced-sugar confectionery sales increase overall as the economy recovers—especially since the taste of sugar-free and reduced-sugar products has improved substantially over the last decade as suppliers and formulators have collaborated to raise the sensory bar on these products.
Sugar-free vs. reduced-sugar
The primary building blocks of food sugars are the monosaccharides glucose, fructose and galactose. The structure of each of these sugars is completed by one of two functional groups, an aldehyde or ketone. These functional groups interact with other ingredients, such as protein, to create familiar products like caramel. Monosaccharides can also be linked with other monosaccharides to form what are called disaccharides (i.e., consisting of two sugars). The most common disaccharides found in confectionery applications are sucrose, maltose and lactose. Of these sugars, sucrose is probably the most widely used in the making of candy. It is the standard for all other bulking ingredients and high potency sweeteners to meet.
“Reduced sugar” products can be the easiest to formulate. Only a portion of the sugar needs to be replaced to meet the claim. And since the majority of the sugars are still allowed to be used, these products often retain much of their desirable characteristics and func-tionality when finished.
Consumer sensory expectations of confectionery are based on full-sugar products, so any sugar-free or reduced-sugar product would ultimately need to meet those same expectations. As a result, understanding the basic functional aspects of sugar and corn syrup in con-fectionery applications is a necessity for the product designer.
The functional gold standard
Many confectionery characteristics are based on the amount of sugar crystallization, or “graining,” in the product. To replace sucrose in a grained application such as fudge, you need to find a sugar-free ingredient that can provide a similar solubility and crystallization property. Sucrose has excellent solubility in water, and confectioners have been trained to work with its crystallization rate and qualities. Often, to meet those expectations, formulators need to work with several sugar-free ingredients and may need to “seed” (add crystalline product) the process to accelerate crystallization. Hard candies can be grained (as in a product made with sucrose and/or corn syrup, or an isomalt product) or they can exist as an amorphous glass. In the latter case, molecular weight is a key element in elevating the glass-transition temperature to a level which does not allow “cold flow” of the product during shelf life.
Sucrose has a molecular weight (MW) of 342 grams per mole. In the world of carbohydrates, this is considered somewhat small. The typical characteristics of smaller molecules, like the mono- and disaccharides, are that they tend to crystallize more readily, have less viscosity and provide greater humectancy by binding water more effectively. This is why, for example, confectioners use more sugar than corn syrup in their “grained” candy formulations. It allows them to get optimal crystallization.