Sugar reduction and clean-label formulation

Clean label supplements with less sugar and no titanium dioxide

Sugar-free and reduced-sugar gummies, powders, stick packs and drink mixes, and capsules and tablets without titanium dioxide: these are the clean label supplements we develop for premium wellness brands and make in our Leicester facility. We use natural colours from foods and build each sweetener system around the claims and rules of the markets you sell in, with separate US and GB and EU systems matched to one sensory target where the rules differ. You keep the formula and its specification, the sensory and stability reports and the sugar and polyol results behind every claim on your label, and every batch comes with its certificate of analysis.

Clean label supplements win on what the label leaves out and on what the product still delivers: taste, texture and a dose that holds through shelf life. Sugar is difficult to take out, because in a gummy it sweetens, adds bulk, binds water and helps the gel set.

"Clean label" has no legal definition in GB, the EU or the US, but the claims beneath it are regulated, and a label must not emphasise the absence of an ingredient that similar products also lack. We read clean label as a design brief: a short ingredient list, colours from foods, no titanium dioxide, and every claim backed by its legal condition.

Replacing sugar's bulk, set and sweetness, market by market

What sugar does, and what replaces it

• Bulk and water. Polyols such as maltitol, isomalt, sorbitol, xylitol and erythritol, and soluble fibres such as polydextrose and inulin, replace the solids. They bind water differently, and water activity drives texture and stability.
• The set. High-methoxyl pectin needs more than 60% soluble solids and a pH of about 2.8 to 3.5 to gel, so a sugar-free gummy usually moves to gelatine or a calcium-set low-methoxyl pectin.
• Sweetness. High-intensity sweeteners replace it at milligram levels, blended so sweetness arrives and fades like sugar.
• Browning. Polyols are not reducing sugars, so they avoid the Maillard browning sugar causes with amino acids. Allulose is a reducing sugar and browns.

In GB and the EU, "sugars" excludes polyols, and energy is calculated at 2.4 kcal per gram for polyols and zero for erythritol. Products with a sweetener add "with sweetener(s)" to the name, and more than 10% added polyols requires "excessive consumption may produce laxative effects", so we calculate every formula's polyol share before the first bench sample.

Sugar claims and their conditions

Soluble fibre also opens an authorised claim: where non-digestible carbohydrates replace sugars so the product meets the reduced sugars condition, labels can state "Consumption of foods/drinks containing [the non-digestible carbohydrates used] instead of sugars induces a lower blood glucose rise after their consumption compared to sugar-containing foods/drinks". Our claims and regulation review checks every claim for each market before artwork.

Sweeteners and where each can be used

Allulose, monk fruit and sweet proteins by market

Allulose, monk fruit extract and brazzein can be used in the US under GRAS notices FDA has answered with "no questions". None has a sweetener or novel food authorisation in GB or the EU, although water decoctions of monk fruit are not novel foods in either. For brands selling in both regions, we build separate US and GB and EU sweetener systems to one sensory target, and a blind panel confirms the two versions taste alike.

The erythritol question

In 2023, Witkowski and colleagues reported in Nature Medicine that, in three observational cohorts of patients, those with higher blood erythritol had more major adverse events over three years, and that erythritol increased platelet reactivity in laboratory tests. In 2024, the same group found that 30 g of erythritol in water increased platelet reactivity in 20 healthy adults, and 30 g of glucose did not. The cohort findings are associations, not proof of cause; the authors called for long-term safety studies. As of October 2026, erythritol remains authorised in GB and the EU (E 968), and EFSA has set an acceptable daily intake of 0.5 g per kg of body weight, based on its laxative effect. We use it where the brief calls for it and build erythritol-free systems for brands that prefer them.

Natural colours: colouring foods or additives

In GB and the EU, a colour made from a food without selectively concentrating its pigments is a colouring food: it is labelled as an ingredient, such as carrot or blackcurrant concentrate, with no E number, and its own sugars count towards any sugar claim. A selective extract is a colour additive with an E number. The US has no colouring food category: every colour, including fruit juice and spirulina extract, is a colour additive FDA must list, with its permitted uses, and spirulina extract's uses include candy and coatings on supplement tablets and capsules. FDA also allows more flexible "no artificial colors" claims for naturally derived colours. In the US, Red No. 3 must leave foods and dietary supplements by 15 January 2027, and FDA aims to remove the other petroleum-based dyes from the food supply, so we colour new US products from natural sources.

Natural colours are less stable than the dyes they replace. Anthocyanins from black carrot are red in acid and shift towards purple and blue as pH rises, and they fade with heat, light and vitamin C. Spirulina blue is a protein pigment that loses colour with heat and light and is unstable in acid (Newsome and colleagues, 2014).

Titanium dioxide (E 171) is banned as a food additive in the EU and remains authorised in Great Britain. We make new products without it, using calcium carbonate, starch-based coatings or coloured shells in our capsule and tablet manufacturing.

Less sweet, not just less sugar

WHO's 2023 guideline recommends against using non-sugar sweeteners to control body weight, a conditional recommendation that does not cover polyols or low-calorie sugars. We agree a sweetness target with each brand, often below sugar's, and reach it through acids, aromatic top notes and flavour and taste masking rather than more sweetener.

Sugar and polyol results behind every claim on your label

We and our partner network measure what the label promises, and every batch is tested by accredited partner laboratories (ISO/IEC 17025) as part of every order.

• Sugars and polyols. Chromatography of the first production batch confirms the sugar claim and the polyol share, and we test again whenever an ingredient or its supplier changes.
• Water activity and texture. We set water activity limits and compare texture with the benchmark instrumentally.
• Colour. Colorimetry at each stability time point, with light exposure for natural colours.
• Sensory. Triangle tests to ISO 4120 show whether customers can tell a reformulated product from its benchmark, and descriptive profiling scores sweetness, linger, bitterness and cooling.
• Stability. Accelerated and real-time studies in the final pack track the active assay, polyol crystallisation, stickiness and colour fade; see stability and shelf life testing.

Quality control releases each batch against its specification, and gummies get an active assay on every batch as standard. With every batch you receive the certificate of analysis and the batch release confirmation; from development you keep the formula, its specification, the sensory and stability reports and the sugar and polyol results behind every claim on your label.

Taking the sugar out of gummies and drink mixes

Sugar-free gummies

A sugar-free gummy replaces glucose syrup and sucrose with polyols and soluble fibre, sets with gelatine or calcium-set pectin, and swaps sugar sanding for polyol sanding or an oil and wax coating. Anthocyanins suit its acidity better than spirulina blue. In production we cook the syrup to its target solids, add acid, colour and heat-sensitive actives as late as the process allows, deposit into moulds and dry the gummies to their water activity limit before coating and packing, with a desiccant where the moisture budget needs one. See gummy manufacturing.

Powders, sticks and drinks

Drink mixes use milligram amounts of sucralose and steviol glycosides, blended with acids and flavours so the powder dissolves to a clean taste. Soft drinks with added sugar face the UK levy from 5 g of total sugar per 100 ml; the threshold is due to fall under draft legislation, so we design new drink recipes below the planned 4.5 g. In the UK, England's promotion restrictions and the UK's advertising restrictions on less healthy food and drink exclude food supplements. A functional food or drink sold outside the supplement rules can be caught if it sits in a listed category and scores as less healthy; sugar-free sweets and gum sit outside the confectionery category. See powder supplement manufacturing.

Illustrative worked example: a sugar-free vitamin gummy

This example is illustrative, not a client project. A brand wants its vitamin gummy to carry "sugars-free" in GB and the EU and "sugar-free" in the US, coloured from foods. We replace glucose syrup and sucrose with maltitol and polydextrose, move to gelatine, and sweeten with sucralose and steviol glycosides. GB and EU labels add the laxative statement and "with sweetener(s)". Black carrot concentrate brings some sugars, so we measure sugars in the finished gummy against the 0.5 g limit; the US label asterisks it as adding "a trivial amount of sugar" and adds "not a low calorie food". A triangle test against the original shows whether customers will notice.

Sweetness target, market screen and the first sugar test

1. Brief. The claims you want, your markets, a sweetness target and a benchmark.
2. Market screen. Every sweetener, colour and bulking agent checked against each market's rules, dated.
3. Formulation and bench samples. Bulk, set, sweetness, acid and colour designed together and tested against the benchmark.
4. Pilot batch and stability. Texture, water activity, colour and actives tracked in the final pack.
5. Label. Claim conditions, statements and warnings checked for each market.
6. Production. Sugars measured on the first production batch, then every batch tested and released.

Already selling a sugar-based product? Our supplement reformulation work moves it to a sugar-free or natural-colour version without losing what customers buy it for. Every formula runs through our research and development team; R&D is a paid stage that can be included with an order of the right size. British VitaTech is ISO 9001, HACCP and GMP certified by BSI, and FDA registered. Your formula is yours, including its sweetener system and the data behind it, and our ingredient library lists the sweeteners, fibres and colours we use. Start your project with your benchmark and the claims you want.

References: Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims (2006); Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers (2011); Regulation (EC) No 1333/2008 on food additives (2008); Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 on authorised health claims (2012); 21 CFR 101.60, nutrient content claims (1993); EFSA, re-evaluation of erythritol (E 968) as a food additive (2023); Witkowski and colleagues, Nature Medicine (2023); Regulation (EU) 2022/63 on titanium dioxide (2022).