A simple switch from crystalline maltitol to maltitol syrup creates significant savings in pudding applications

Deciding on the preferred sweetener for your application can sometimes be overwhelming.  Maltitol, a polyol or sugar alcohol is a disaccharide with about 90 percent of the sweetness of sucrose and significantly fewer calories, with many similar characteristics. Maltitol can provide the bulk, texture and preservative benefits of sucrose in sugar-free and calorie-reduced products.  It is a suitable sugar substitute for dental health and weight management plus, maltitol syrup, as a product format, can have a cost advantage over crystalline maltitol.

In many applications, maltitol syrup has a cost advantage over crystalline maltitol because it is ready to use.  Maltitol syrup can replace sugar in candy, gums, desserts, chocolate, jellies, pudding, and many other applications that contain some water. Crystalline maltitol is ideal for baking applications. Some specific chewy confectionery applications benefit from using maltitol syrup because of the syrup’s distributed molecular weight and the potential extension of shelf life through moisture control.

Maltitol syrup is a valuable replacement for crystalline maltitol as it adds convenience, provides cost and labor savings and reduces waste. Crystalline maltitol often comes in 50 lbs. bags that require manual labor and could create ergonomic issues. Food manufacturers use liquid holding tanks for maltitol syrup to replace crystalline maltitol bags.   

A consumer packaged food manufacturer approached Cargill about developing a cost saving formulation for their shelf stable pudding products.  They didn’t have an ingredient solution in mind which opened up the reformulation opportunities. The Cargill technical teams targeted the manufacturer’s use of crystalline maltitol in their current pudding formulas.  Since pudding contains some moisture, replacing the crystalline ingredient with a similar liquid product seemed like a logical solution.

Cargill produced a chocolate pudding prototype.  Matching the sweetness and texture were formulation challenges but the pudding also needed to be shelf stable. Stability testing proved that the pudding prototype was not vulnerable to syneresis, where the liquid separates from the gel.  The manufacturer was also pleased with the mouthfeel and taste and quickly adopted the formula for their products.    

Maltidex™ maltitol offers food and beverage manufacturers a low-calorie, sugar-free alternative to sugar. It functions much like sucrose in terms of solubility and freeze-point depression, and it provides superb workability and functionality.

Begin with the end product in mind when considering polyols in your formulation. Maltitol's sweetness, solubility and heat of solution are nearly identical to sucrose, not to mention similarities of mouthfeel, taste and texture in finished products. High purity maltitol syrup is available in Europe and North America.