Sports drinks reformulation : the change from sugar to natural alternatives

Consumers today are constantly striving for a better healthier lifestyle. This has resulted in more people taking notice of nutritional labels and focusing on the energy content or calories of the product.  There has been a growth in the drinks industry for low or zero calories drinks. As a result companies are listening more to their consumers and making the necessary changes to meet expectations. This has applied to the sports drinks industry.

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The industry has listened to their consumers and developed ranges of sports drinks that deliver vitamins and electrolytes without the unwanted calories. Focus has been on reducing sugar and changing to alternative natural sugars that are lower in calories such as stevia / monkfruit sugar. The challenge when creating these drinks is obtaining that same taste and sweetness that the original sugary version may have had. With changes in recipe the overall flavour and taste of the product can change. Hence sensory panels are used to determine changes from the original flavour. This is expensive and time consuming and a rapid analytical approach is needed. The FlavourSpec provides results within minutes.