Reducing sugar in the diet on a nationwide scale has been a galactically slow process—until the last five to 10 years, that is. A decade ago, consumers would’ve been lucky to find a single low- or no-sugar frozen dessert in the grocery store. Now? Holy smokes, there are literally hundreds of items demanding precious endcap marketing space to full-on isles of low-sugar and no-sugar frozen desserts. From ice creams, whipped toppings and popsicles to puddings, custards, sherbets, sorbets, gelatos, Venetian ice and more, consumer demand has spoken and the natural food industry has answered—with a few products that even taste good. And that’s where this specific food category tends to thaw. Nothing quite replaces sugar. Sure, there are dozens of alternative sweeteners to sugar, some more natural than others and several that are even many times sweeter per volume than sugar. But as food scientists, we know full well the other taste, texture and physical characteristics that must be compensated for when sugar is reduced or removed completely. Consumers know too, although they tend to lump it all together under “taste.” Sugar lowers the freezing point of frozen desserts, for example, which is one of the reasons why “frozen” ice cream scoops from the carton. Without sugar, that sweet creamy gallon of goodness would be better suited for an igloo cornerstone. Sugar also keeps water molecules busy in solution, so big chunks of ice aren’t allowed to form, and it helps retain a frozen treat’s creamy texture, retards the melting rate at room temperature and more. And while little of this is likely news to anyone in a lab coat, what might be of interest to us petri dish types is our new Sweet Additions rice syrup solids, tapioca syrup solids and hydrolyzed rice flours taking reduced- and no-sugar frozen desserts closer to the “real deal” than ever before. Sweet Additions Breakthroughs There’s our new RiceTrin® 35 Rice Syrup Solids in both Conventionalor Organic Certifiedformulations, for example. This functional carbohydrate nutrient produced by a natural enzymatic process is non-GMO, hypoallergenic and gluten free. RiceTrin® 35 is a: Multifunctional natural sweetener • Excellent bulking agent and flavor carrier • Controls body and mouth feel • Is easily digestible • Inhibits crystallization • Is an effective humectant • Improves sheen and appearance, provides opacity • Is a compressible/carrier for tableting • And promotes browning. RiceComplete® 35 Hydrolyzed Rice Flour is a complete rice flour solids formulation, in Conventionalor Organic Certifiedvarieties, with its carbohydrate fraction hydrolyzed by a natural enzymatic process. Rice*Complete® 35 also is non-GMO, hypoallergenic, gluten free, and an: Excellent natural source of protein • Multifunctional natural sweetener • Has excellent binding properties • Is an effective humectant • Provides opacity • Controls body and mouth feel • And regulates osmolality. And while you’re considering these new products, please also check out TapiDex™ 28 Tapioca Syrup Solids, also in Conventionalor Organic Certifiedformulations, and which is also—you guessed it—non-GMO, hypoallergenic and gluten free. This tapioca syrup solids produced from tapioca starch by a natural enzymatic process exhibits the following key characteristics: It is a multifunctional natural sweetener • Excellent humectant • Enhances body and texture • Provides binding properties • Exhibits good freeze thaw stability • Promotes browning • Is an excellent flavor release • And is a compressible/carrier for tableting. We’re quite excited about these new products and our new processes for deriving them. Which, by the way, can be customized to suit other particular ingredients for proprietary formulations. Please contact Sweet Additionsto discuss your needs. We’ll make it happen. After all, what good is cake if you can’t eat it too?