Same taste, less sugar in your dairy product future

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In Pennsylvania, dairy foods are popular among consumers and now consumers demand healthier, low-calorie products that taste the same as their high-calorie counterparts.

“Dairy foods represent a large market,” explained lead investigator MaryAnne Drake, PhD, William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor, Department of Food, Bioprocessing, and Nutrition Sciences, Southeast Dairy Foods Research Center, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA. “The dilemma of how to reduce sugar content without sacrificing flavor and negatively affecting product sales is challenging, as sugar plays an important role in dairy foods, not only in flavor, but also in texture, color, and viscosity.  Replacing sugar can have negative effects, making substitution inherently difficult.”

The most successful techniques for sugar reduction in dairy foods involve replacing sugar with non-nutritive sweeteners, whether natural or artificial, because these provide the sweet taste desired by consumers without added calories. Direct reduction of sugar and lactose hydrolysis methods also show promise.