Why Sugar Is Added to Food: Food Science 101

Abstract

Avoiding too much sugar is an accepted dietary guidance throughout the world. The U.S. Nutrition Facts panel includes information on total sugars in foods. A focus on added sugars is linked to the concept of discretionary calories and decreasing consumption of added sugars or free sugars as a means to assist a consumer to identify foods that are nutrient-dense. On March 14, 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proposed that including "added sugars" declaration on the Nutrition Facts panel would be another tool to help consumers reduce excessive discretionary calorie intake from added sugars. Through deductive reasoning, labeling added sugars is one tactic to potentially curb the obesity epidemic in the United States. This review discusses the functions of sugar in food and shows that the methods used to replace added sugars in foods can result in no reduction in calorie content or improvement in nutrient density. Without clear benefit to the consumer for added sugars labeling, this review highlights the complex business obstacles, costs, and consumer confusion resulting from the proposed rule.

Controversies about sugars: results from systematic reviews and meta-analyses on obesity, cardiometabolic disease and diabetes

“…One, substitution trials, in which comparisons are matched for energy, with fructose, in liquid or mixed format, is substituted for other sources of carbohydrates in the diet. The substitution trials can provide information on the usefulness of low-sugar foods on shelves, which are usually backfilled with other carbohydrates including starch and maltodextrins, so in many cases the total amount of calories do not change [106]. The second type of trials is addition trials, in which comparisons are supplemented with excess energy from fructose compared with the same diet alone without excess energy, i.e.…”

“…The functions provided in food products by sugars are related to their sensory (sweetness, taste and aroma, texture and appearance), physical (crystallization, viscosity, osmotic pressure, hygroscopicity, consistency/bulk, grain size and distribution), microbial (preservation and fermentation) and chemical (inversion and caramelization) properties [151]. Therefore, reducing or replacing sugar means one has to replace sugars with several ingredients in order to fulfil the above properties which, in many cases, may not result in calorie reduction [106]. Most commonly sugars are replaced with bulking agents, and most of these bulking agents also provide energy as most are carbohydrate-based, e.g.…”

“…isomaltulose, sugar alcohols, maltodextrins and starch hydrolysates, and some are fat based. Thus, the calorie reduction in ‘low-sugar’ products might be negligible or in some cases might even increase [106]. Another side effect of a drastic reduction in sugars is that even good sources of sugars might be targeted like whole grains.…”

Evaluating taste contribution of brown sugar in chicken seasoning using taste compounds, sensory evaluation, and electronic tongue

“…[34] The fructose, glucose, and sucrose content in food were widely analyzed by HPLC. [35] As shown in Table 2, the three samples had statistically significant differences (P < 0.05) in terms of sugar types and content.…”

“…Especially when a kind of sugar is added to "not-sweet" products, such as seasonings, it can balance the flavor and improve the mouthfeel. [34] In this study, chicken seasonings with different types of sugar were evaluated, and the effects of brown sugar on the taste of the samples were observed. For example, a correlation was built between the Fe 3+ , Mg 2+ , and I + G content and the "astringent" and "salty" attributes was established.…”