Allulose | Good product, made by Fuyang

Allulose is a rare sugar that exists in small amounts in nature. It is classified as a hexose and a ketose, corresponding to the C3 carbon of D-fructose as its epimer. It has special functions beneficial to human health, such as regulating blood sugar levels, and has been rated by the U.S. Food Navigator as the most promising sucrose substitute. It is mainly prepared using enzyme immobilization and conversion methods, which involve cloning, expressing, isolating, and purifying enzymes, followed by immobilization on suitable carriers for conversion.

Allulose plays an important role in maintaining appropriate blood sugar levels in the human body.

Applications of Allulose

In beverages, allulose can combine well with steviol glycosides to achieve a significant reduction in sugar while maintaining overall taste and quality. Due to its high solubility, it is very suitable for use in various beverages; crystalline allulose has excellent solubility in powdered beverage mixtures (such as iced tea or chocolate milk).

Baking

Using allulose can create perfect sweetness, caramel flavor, moistness, and brown low-sugar low-calorie baked goods. Allulose also has good moisture retention properties that keep baked products moist and stable in hardness throughout their shelf life while lowering the freezing point. Compared to full-sugar products, allulose has at least three months of refrigeration stability (without dehydration shrinkage) in fruit preserves.

Candy

The lower crystallization rate of allulose allows for the production of candy products with desired texture characteristics. When used at a concentration of 25%, allulose can reduce sugar content by 55% and calories by 30%, with hardness and elasticity comparable to full-sugar gummies. Under high-temperature processing conditions for candies, allulose caramelizes, helping to form good color and flavor in candy products. In dark chocolate applications, when using allulose at a level of 25%, it can provide up to a 65% reduction in sugar and a 15% reduction in calories while maintaining acceptable taste characteristics.

Biomaterials

Plant-based materials produced from allulose have environmentally friendly properties such as waterproofing and transparency, making them applicable in the field of liquid crystal displays.

Advantages of Allulose

1. Low Calorie: The sweetness of allulose is about 70% that of sucrose but with far fewer calories—only one-tenth that of sucrose; the FDA states that allulose has a caloric value of 0.4 kcal/g. Because allulose is not metabolized by the human body and has low fermentability for gut microbiota, it does not cause gastrointestinal discomfort like sugar alcohols.

2. Taste Similar to Sucrose: In terms of taste, allulose offers a mild and delicate sweetness very similar to high-purity sucrose's pure sweetness; it stimulates taste buds faster than sucrose without any unpleasant aftertaste during or after consumption. Its sweetness remains consistent across various temperatures.

3. Improved Product Quality: Allulose combined with egg white protein through Maillard reaction not only forms better cross-linking structures improving food texture but also generates substances with high antioxidant properties that can reduce oxidative loss during food processing and storage. Partially replacing sucrose with allulose in cakes can produce large amounts of antioxidant components through Maillard reaction thus improving cake quality.

4. Non-Cariogenic: The chemical formula for allulose is identical to fructose (C6H12O6), but its arrangement differs; it is an epimer of fructose. Allulose is non-cariogenic; it does not lower pH levels in the mouth thus does not increase the risk of cavities making it a healthy sugar alternative.

5. Stable Properties: The structure and properties of allulose are extremely stable with strong chemical inertness under normal temperature and pressure conditions. When mixed with citric acid and stored at warm temperatures for up to thirty days no conversion sugars were found indicating it cannot be decomposed by organic acids or vitamins.

6. Minimal Metabolism Involvement: D-allulose contains some calories but very few; unlike traditional sweeteners when D-allulose is ingested about 70% is excreted directly through urine or feces producing energy equivalent only to about 0.3% that from an equal amount of sucrose [1], posing no digestive burden or health threat.