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Tate & Lyle launches Dolcia Prima

Tate & Lyle has launched Dolcia Prima Low-Calorie Sugar, its newest ingredient which the company says is set to transform the way the food and beverage industry develops low- or reduced-calorie products. Dolcia Prima is Tate & Lyle’s brand name for allulose, a low-calorie sugar that exists in nature and can be found in small quantities […]

Tate & Lyle has launched Dolcia Prima Low-Calorie Sugar, its newest ingredient which the company says is set to transform the way the food and beverage industry develops low- or reduced-calorie products. Dolcia Prima is Tate & Lyle’s brand name for allulose, a low-calorie sugar that exists in nature and can be found in small quantities in some fruits and foods people eat every day. It was first identified in wheat in the 1930s. Tate & Lyle’s Dolcia Prima is claimed to deliver the satisfying mouthfeel and sweetness of table sugar, but contains 90% fewer calories, so food and beverage manufacturers are expected to be able to significantly reduce the calories in products while maintaining the same taste and enjoyment of sugar that consumers demand.

”One of the biggest challenges our industry faces is reducing calories while maintaining the taste experience consumers expect from their favourite foods and beverages,” said Abigail Storms, Vice President, Platform Management, Sweeteners, at Tate & Lyle. “Now food and beverage manufacturers can contribute to this public health challenge by using Dolcia Prima Low-Calorie Sugar. Working with Dolcia Prima, our culinary teams have learned that it is possible to provide consumers with products with all the taste, all the mouthfeel and all the texture they expect, but without all the calories. In taste trials, consumers ranked low-calorie versions of foods made with Dolcia Prima equally with the full-calorie versions.”

Tate & Lyle says that Dolcia Prima Low-Calorie Sugar can be used in a range of applications including beverages, yoghurt, ice cream and baked products to reduce calories or to make lower-calorie options taste even better. Unlike high-potency sweeteners, the company claims that Dolcia Prima is 70% as sweet as sucrose (sugar) and has the same temporal taste profile, which means it provides a clean, sweet taste as well as the functionality of sugar. In fact, according to the company, products made with Dolcia Prima ranked at parity with full-calorie full-sugar versions in preference taste tests across a variety of foods.

Dolcia Prima can be formulated successfully into many different food products that usually contain sugar because it delivers many of the benefits that sugar offers, such as adequate browning when baking, bulk and texture. It can also depress the freezing point when making frozen products. It is a highly-soluble, liquid ingredient, which means it is easy to use in liquid products and adds bulk and texture in formulations. Tate & Lyle applications experts have developed optimised methods to incorporate Dolcia Prima into a variety of products and continue to add new developments all the time.