Cargill sweetener makes its way to bakery aisles

The new Clabber Girl Sugar Replacer for Baking, which contains Cargill's SweetDesign sweetener blend, claims to allow cup for cup sugar replacement for home baking. The new product was "slightly"​ adjusted from the formulation of Cargill's industrial SweetDesign ingredient, containing a higher ratio of high intensity sweetener as manufacturers at an industrial level tend to use weight, rather than volume, as a basis for replacement, explained Cargill marketing manager Paul Vajda. ​"The key message is that SweetDesign is a customizable product,"​ he told FoodNavigator-USA.com today. SweetDesign was launched for use in industrial bakery products at the IFT show last year, and has since gathered significant interest for targeted uses, said the firm. At the time, food bakery scientist at Cargill Wendy Erickson told FoodNavigator-USA.com: "It's always been very difficult to match the performance of sugar so we've done a lot of work understanding the functionality of the different components in the system, and we've tried to optimize the blend to perform at its peak for taste and texture".​ The product is marketed as easy to use, with no reformulation necessary and a performance equal to sugar in a number of bakery applications. The system, which is also marketed as bringing a 'good' source of fiber claim to products, contains high intensity sweeteners neotame and acesulfame potassium, as well as erythritol, isomalt, sorbitol and polydextrose. Cargill said it also has a blend without the high intensity sweeteners, designed for use in countries where neotame is not permitted, such as Canada. This allows manufacturers to add their own blend of high intensity sweeteners. According to Cargill, its product also has the advantage of being more digestively tolerant than other polyols such as sorbitol and malitol, and the firm is currently working on a second round of the system, with higher levels of tolerance. The ingredient system currently allows manufacturers to reduce calories by around 20 percent, depending on the application. Products formulated with SweetDesign are able to carry a 'no sugar added' claim. In the new Clabber Girl consumer product, the sweetener solution claims to allow for 70 percent fewer calories.