What’s coming after stevia? 4 new sweeteners on the horizon

When it comes to sugar reduction, consumers want it all: low calories, natural ingredients, and crucially, great taste. For years, stevia has claimed to tick all three boxes, but shoppers aren’t convinced on the last point. Its bitter aftertaste often means stevia needs to be blended with other sweeteners or flavour modulators to make it palatable. For innovators, the challenge is clear: create a natural, great-tasting sweetener that cuts calories and, ideally, delivers added functionality. Crack that, and it could dethrone natural alternatives like stevia and monk fruit. Here are four start-ups – from Peru to Italy, Finland to the UK – promising the next generation of sugar reduction technology. Meet the yacon: a perennial tuber native to the Andes in South America that’s long featured in local sweet and savoury dishes. But now the vegetable, otherwise known as the Peruvian ground apple, is attracting attention as a natural sweetener for the food industry thanks to its high fructooligosaccharide (FOS) content – a type of fibre that supports gut health. Franco-Peruvian start-up Yacon & co is working to bring yacon-powered sugar reduction to Europe via its yacon syrup format. The yacon tubers are harvested, cleaned and cut, before being cold-pressed to extract their juice. It’s then concentrated using a low-temperature heating method. The final formulation, a yacon syrup, contains half the calories and one-quarter of the sugar than regular sugar. The start-up describes its syrup as a “glycaemic game-changer,” making it suitable for people with diabetes – including one of its co-founders. In bakery applications, it can reduce sugar content by up to 30%; in dairy, it boosts fermentation and fibre content; and in beverages, it offers “perfect solubility” with no crystallisation in functional drinks. Consumers want ingredients that do more than sustain. And that’s what Italian start-up Coccola is offering with its non-synthetic sweetener that hydrates and energises. It’s a blended ingredient, made from coconut milk powder (but completely dairy-free) and coconut water powder, and that’s where the functional benefits come from. Coconut naturally contains electrolytes, potassium, proteins and iron. Coccola is pushing its powdered ingredient as a perfect companion for coffee, tea, smoothies, and mixed in with water. In coffee, Coccola can naturally sweeten, while also boosting metabolism thanks to the synergy between coffee polyphenols and coconut protein. In smoothies, it can help support the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins like A, D, E and K. UK-based start-up Zya is rethinking sugar reduction with a novel approach: instead of replacing sugar, it transforms it. The company has developed an enzyme, Convero, that converts around 30% of the sugar consumed into prebiotic fibre during digestion. The idea is that consumers can still enjoy the sweetness they crave, while benefiting from added fibre and fewer net sugars. Zya positions its technology as a win-win for both health and taste. By working inside the body rather than altering recipes, Convero helps food manufacturers keep the indulgent flavour profiles consumers expect – without the compromises often associated with sugar substitutes. The potential applications are broad: from bakery and confectionery to beverages and dairy. For consumers focused on weight management or gut health, this approach offers a functional benefit beyond simple calorie reduction. As Zya’s co-founder Dr Joshua Sauer puts it: “Sugar reduction is here to stay—but it doesn’t have to mean sacrificing sweetness.” Industry is yet to crack the sugar replacement problem: consumers want low calorie, tasty products, but don’t like the aftertaste of sweeteners. So what if products could be sweet, sugar free, and importantly, tasty? That’s what Finnish operator Gova is promising with its encapsulation technology. The start-up has developed two approaches to sugar reduction, one it describes as a hybrid sugar replacer combining 70% erythritol with 30% sugar. The other blends erythritol with whichever other sweetener a manufacturers wants to use, be it maltitol, stevia, monk fruit, or something else altogether. Gova has even developed a white chocolate prototype that’s completely sugar free – quite a feat given that sugar is often the primary ingredient in conventional white chocolate. Whether the future of sugar reduction is artificial or natural remains uncertain. What is clear, however, is that more and more consumers want ingredient lists they can actually pronounce – we’re in the era of extreme clean labels . But it’s not just about the back-of-pack: if it doesn’t taste good, shoppers won’t buy it. And if it doesn’t deliver the functionality manufacturers need, it won’t make it to market. New sugar reduction solutions must now prove themselves in real food and drink applications – and if they succeed on both fronts, they could be on the path to F&B dominance.