HealthTech Bio Actives (HTBA), a leading innovator in citrus flavonoids for winning food and beverage products, has announced the launch of citrose, a next-generation high-intensity sweetener.
Bridging the gap between sugar reduction, great taste and cleaner labels, it unlocks new formulation possibilities across a wide range of zero- and reduced-sugar applications, from beverages, nutritional shakes and powders to dairy alternatives, baked goods and more.
Citrose will make its debut at IFT FIRST in Chicago to inspire product developers, R&D teams and procurement specialists with label-friendly solutions to tackle the ongoing sugar reduction challenge.
Citrose arrives at a pivotal moment for the industry.
With 76% of global consumers looking to limit sugar, while 85% of Americans still prioritise taste and texture,[ manufacturers face a difficult balancing act.
More consumers are also seeking products that deliver a clean, authentic sweetness, especially as GLP-1 medication continues to gain popularity and users experience greater sensitivity to artificial tastes.
Yet, reduced-sugar products often suffer from bitterness, lingering aftertastes and poor mouthfeel, while alternative sweeteners often require chemical-sounding alternative sweetener ingredient names on-pack.
All this impacts consumer acceptance and repeat purchase. With approximately several hundred times the sweetness of sugar, citrose directly addresses this challenge, helping brands formulate products that deliver a more complete, sugar-like taste profile without the drawbacks of traditional sweeteners.
Introducing citrose: the game-changing sweetener complex
Citrose is a unique, patented sweetener complex that originates from immature Citrus aurantium fruits that have naturally fallen to the ground before being collected, sundried and processed via HTBA's proprietary methods.
The result is an Upcycled Certified ingredient that can also be declared in the US as "citrose," a consumer-friendly, citrus-derived common name.
Designed to produce a smoother, more balanced, and cleaner sweetness profile even in challenging applications, citrose delivers fast sweetness onset with fewer off-notes and less lingering aftertaste, especially when blended with other sweeteners.
In a consumer study, the ingredient name was perceived favourably, ranking ahead of acesulfame-K, stevia, sucralose and aspartame.
When it came to sensory performance, consumers rated citrose as comparable with stevia in naturalness, while scoring it higher for taste authenticity.
Citrose-sucralose blends also earned top ratings on key taste attributes, while citrose-stevia blends were perceived as virtually identical to stevia-sugar.
For formulators, these consumer-tested attributes make citrose ideal for effectively cleaning up high-intensity blended sweetener systems, rounding out stevia blends, recovering fullness, or managing functional ingredient loads.
“Food and beverage manufacturers are under pressure to reduce sugar, but taste remains the deciding factor for consumers,” comments Emily Wagener, Global Product Manager for Taste Modulation at HTBA.
“Citrose can help producers to improve sweetness quality without the tradeoffs, which is why we’re incredibly excited to introduce this new offering to product developers, R&D teams, and procurement professionals attending IFT FIRST."
"The timing is right, with the industry’s focus on sugar reduction and the growing influence of GLP-1 users who are more sensitive to artificial tastes.”
