29 August, 2025 – The appeal of natural sweeteners is increasing, as consumers aim to cut down on their sugar usage, with preferences leaning towards natural ingredients. Processes such as precision fermentation are being deployed to create natural sweeteners, and their inclusion in food and beverages is spreading rapidly. At the same time, there is a movement toward clean labels, and natural ingredients can provide an opportunity for technology to aid ingredient development. However, cost efficiency, processing methods and the use of label descriptors are still issues to overcome. To understand this further, Innova Market Insights takes a look at what consumers are doing and how products are evolving with the use of natural sweeteners.
Why Do Consumers Consider Natural Sweeteners?
Recent data has suggested that shoppers are more conscious of what they consume. Meaning that tendencies like sugar reduction have become one of the main reasons they may avoid a product. As the desire grows for clean label products in their shopping carts, this means that the demand for those that have artificial ingredients is dropping. Clear and understandable labels have become key factors across categories, as limiting sugar, added sugars and artificial sweeteners have become commonplace, especially as people get older. Essentially, when you take a category such as snacks, those with natural ingredients are often chosen if they appeal to consumers looking for low sugar claims, and especially in healthy and indulgent snacks.
Where Are Natural Sweeteners Commonly Found?
Natural sweeteners can be found in soft drinks, confectionery, bakery-based goods and sports nutrition. For example, bakery products contain sugar alcohols, namely glycerol, for moisture and shelf life. While other products of note that feature such sugar alcohols include gums and mints. In other categories, there are emerging opportunities for natural sweeteners too, like hot drinks, dairy and sauces. To break that down a little further, a natural sweetener such as stevia can be used in coffees or lollipops, allowing brands to create a more sugar-like flavor. As for sports nutrition, sweeteners such as those derived from monk fruit have been used throughout products in the United States, alongside other beverages like dairy alternatives and canned cocktails.
The leading natural sweeteners are the plant-derived options like stevia and monk fruit, as well as sugar alcohols (glycerol, sorbitol, mannitol, maltitol, erythritol), rare sugars (allulose, tagatose), and sweet proteins (brazzein, thaumatin). Many of these sweeteners with natural origins are produced today using precision fermentation and other technology-aided production methods. Research suggests that the most common claims associated with these types of sweeteners are “sugar-free” and “no added sugar.” There has also been an increase in products with niche health claims and seasonal releases featuring natural sweeteners such as those mentioned above.
Is There Demand for Limiting Added Sugars and Artificial Sweeteners?
Consumers are avoiding added sugars due to links with calories, weight gain, and dental issues. Concerns about artificial ingredients mean some also limit artificial sweeteners. This creates the perception that benefits alternatives like stevia and monk fruit, though consumers may not realize these still experience some sort of processing. Regardless of their age, many associate avoiding sugar with healthy aging, particularly Generation Z. Other than that, sugar avoidance varies by country, with higher rates in nations like Brazil, Mexico, Spain, India, and Indonesia.
What Are the Expectations of Sugar Reduction and Natural Ingredients?
Consumers recognize the importance of sugar reduction and natural ingredients, even in an indulgent category such as snacks. It demonstrates that consumers are consistent about their actions toward a healthy diet across their food choices, including snacks. In fact, their level of interest has supported a high level of innovation in healthy snacks. As for the expectations by gender, it seems that women are more proactive than men in looking for healthy attributes in their snacks. The main reason for this is that they tend to manage their food choices across all parts of the day, while men view snacking as an opportunity to be less restrictive in their choices.
Understandably, sugar-reduction expectations are higher for healthy snacks and consumers have mentioned that low sugar is the number one most important feature for such snacks. Higher expectations for nutrient enhancements over ingredient reductions are becoming more common in indulgent snacks. For many, sugar is the third most influential feature after the addition of protein and fiber, even though many expect indulgent snacks to be sweet, so sugar reduction may not always be a priority.
Natural sweeteners enable manufacturers to meet consumer expectations for sweetness in indulgent snacks, while also appealing to the subset of consumers who may expect both healthy and indulgent snacks to be low in sugar. Therefore, delivering a sugar-like experience provides consumers with indulgence and sweetness in a snack that happens to be healthier.
Can Precision Fermentation Expand the Range of Sweeteners?
Many leading natural sweeteners can be manufactured using precision fermentation. Research suggests that the plant-derived stevia contains several sweet compounds known as steviol glycosides. These glycosides, including Rebaudiosides (Reb) -A, -D, and -M, are most desired for their replication of the sweetness of sugar. However, because they are present only in small amounts in the stevia plant, the process of precision fermentation has to be used to generate the stevia compounds. Manufacturers also use precision fermentation to generate other natural sweeteners such as erythritol, allulose and the rare proteins brazzein and thaumatin and the use of these sweeteners is expected to grow to meet demand for natural sweeteners.
Macro Trends Drive the Natural Sweeteners Marketplace
The planet’s health is the top global concern for consumers, with many turning to naturally sourced ingredients like natural sweeteners to be sustainable. The health of the population ranks second; as sugar is linked to various health issues, reducing sugar intake through lower calorie natural sweeteners that can promote better health. Innovations such as CRISPR gene therapies for health-related issues and the use of precision fermentation are contributing to alternatives in the marketplace.
Data obtained by Innova Market Insights found that one in three consumers globally prioritizes health and wellbeing in their spending, with 40% having taken significant action to improve their health over the past year. Additionally, one in five people limit certain ingredients, including sugar, in order to eat healthily.
What’s Shaping New Product Launches?
The solid growth in natural sweeteners alone clearly demonstrates a sweet spot. This would mean that the presence of a classic sugar-reduction claim or a naturally sweetened one can push growth even further. Additionally, the launch rate of food and beverage products with natural sweeteners is about four times that of launches with natural sweeteners and a sugar-reduction claim. This suggests widespread use of natural sweeteners across many types of products, not just those positioned for sugar reduction.
Even though consumers favor clean labels, the acceptance of terms like “naturally sweetened” varies by region. Product launches with natural sweeteners are seeing faster growth in Africa and the Middle East than in North America and Western Europe. Countries like Algeria, Senegal, Ghana, Oman, Iran, and the UAE are notable contributors to this trend.
Sugar-free and no added sugar claims each appear on approximately two out of five launches with a sugar-related claim and natural sweeteners. These claims also have gained prominence over the past five years, suggesting that these claims resonate best with consumers looking for products with a sugar reduction. Both low sugar and reduced sugar are becoming less widely used, as they are less absolute than sugar-free or no added sugar – terms that are easier for consumers to understand.
What’s Next for Natural Sweeteners Globally?
As observed in this report, consumers have an interest in clean labels, therefore, the presence of natural sweeteners in place of sugar can attract their attention. Indications recommend that manufacturers can work toward shorter ingredient lists with other natural ingredients in this case. Consumers may link precision fermentation with genetically modified organisms (GMO), which could lead to a backlash against the technology and the creation of certifications to indicate that sweeteners were not produced using it. While an excessive focus on natural ingredients may seem unnatural, naturally sweetened claims are gaining traction.
In soft drinks, the use of natural sweeteners and sugar replacements has a successful history. Although a percentage of consumers may refuse any soft drinks with sugar, so this makes flavor experiences with all-natural ingredients more important than sugar replication. However, reducing sugar with natural sweeteners is considerably more difficult in baked goods, where sugar is essential to sensory properties. Using other natural ingredients, such as fruit, and employing natural imagery can effectively communicate natural claims without explicitly using the term.
This article is based on Innova’s Natural Sweeteners – Global report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to find out more