Clean label ingredient specialist Ulrick & Short has introduced a new ingredient designed to help bakery manufacturers reduce sugar while maintaining product functionality and texture.
The company announced the launch of avanté™ 25, a soluble fibre-based ingredient developed specifically for sweet bakery applications such as muffins, brownies and madeleines. The solution is partly based on soluble maize fibre and is designed to reduce sugar levels while increasing fibre content, without negatively affecting structure, aeration or processing performance.
The development comes as regulatory frameworks and consumer demand continue to push manufacturers towards healthier formulations. Nutrient profiling tools such as the UK Nutrient Profiling Model place increasing emphasis on reducing free sugars, while front-of-pack labelling schemes such as Nutri-Score are influencing reformulation strategies across Europe.
Beyond sweetness, sugar plays several functional roles in bakery products, including moisture retention, foam stabilisation and plasticising effects that influence volume and crumb structure. According to Ulrick + Short, avanté™ 25 is formulated to replicate these functions, allowing manufacturers to maintain product quality when reducing sugar content.
The ingredient is a blend of soluble maize fibre, wheat starch and wheat protein. In formulation trials with muffins, the company reported comparable aeration, crumb structure and colour to full-sugar controls, suggesting the ingredient can be incorporated into existing recipes with minimal adjustment.
Abi Sharp, R&D technologist and registered nutritionist at Ulrick + Short, said: “Fibres are becoming a well-earned hot topic in the industry at the moment. Fibre is incredibly important to us nutritionally, not just for intestinal performance, but for gut health and heightened hormone secretion too, so being able to decrease sugar and increase fibre with just one ingredient is incredibly useful.”
Nutritionally, the ingredient allows manufacturers to achieve up to 30% sugar reduction while adding up to 4g of fibre per 100g of product, enabling both reduced-sugar and fibre claims.
Ulrick + Short said it is working with bakery manufacturers to support reformulation strategies that improve nutritional profiles while maintaining product performance.
