New from Sensient Flavors, APSS Plus is an innovative natural functional flavouring that compensates for the sensory drawbacks that occur when sugar is reduced in beverages.
The natural flavouring enables manufacturers to cut sugar significantly without having to use additional sweeteners. It provides sugar-reduced beverages with harmonised and full-bodied sensory profiles and is particularly suitable for the production of mid-calorie beverages that are free from additional sweeteners and therefore have shorter on-pack ingredients lists.
Acting as neutral building blocks, APSS Plus flavour allows the sensory profile of the sugar 'gold' standard to be maintained, even if the sugar content in the beverage is cut dramatically.
What makes the functional flavouring unique is the fact that it can be used with different types of drinks with various starting brix. Internal trials with cola, strawberry flavoured water and RTD peach ice tea have shown that APSS Plus enables sugar reductions of up to 30%.
The results also clearly demonstrated that, in all cases, the new flavouring successfully compensates for loss of sweetness, body, flavour, longevity and aroma intensity while also improving fruity and fleshy notes.
APSS Plus is fully soluble and can be used across all flavour tonalities to rebalance the sensory profile when sugar has been reduced. A vital component is Sensient Natural Origins extracts, which are derived from state-of-the-art extraction technologies from the finest raw materials.
The resulting extracts are characterised by key volatiles that evoke the perception of sweetness associated with sugar. In creating APSS Plus, Sensient has chosen carefully selected Sensient Natural Origins extracts from naturally sweet ingredients.
'Every beverage provides its own challenges. When it comes to reducing sugar in already low brix beverages, it is a challenge to create well balanced taste profiles,' explains Stefano Asti, Technical Director at Sensient Flavors Beverage Europe. 'However, our flavoring expertise has enabled us to create an advanced line of ingredients that offer manufacturers the perfect solution for every kind of drink and every starting brix.'
