We recently stumbled upon an intriguing article in the Journal of Food Science (Ma, Ziegler & Hayes, 2024) that got our creative juices flowing. The researchers experimented with using rice and oat flours to partially replace sucrose in chocolate. 

Naturally, this sparked our interest, because we’ve had great success using our SproutedByNature™ brown rice flour as a partial sugar replacer in both chocolate and chocolate spreads. We were curious how our results stacked up to this recent research.

Cutting Down on Sugar is a Big Deal Worldwide

The World Health Organization suggests that both kids and adults should keep their free sugar intake below 10 percent of their daily calories — basically, under 50 grams per day for most folks. In some countries, local regulatory agencies have established an even lower target.

To make it easier for everyone to track, the U.S. FDA started requiring food labels to show “added sugars” in 2020. The article mentioned above, in the Journal of Food Science, points out that people’s concern about added sugars has led to a higher demand for sugar-reduced chocolates. 

No surprise there, right? What may be surprising is the impact. According to Market Research Future, the global sugar-free chocolate market is estimated to reach USD 1.37 billion in 2024, growing at a sweet rate of 5.40% annually!

There are loads of options for sugar replacement, but here’s what we know:

• Bulking agents, like maltodextrin, can’t replace sugar in large amounts without making the texture sticky. 
• Over the past decade, natural high-potency sweeteners like stevia and monk fruit have become super popular, thanks to improvements in quality and cost. But, as noted in the article being discussed, high-potency sweeteners alone can’t do the trick, because sugar also acts as a bulking agent in chocolate.

The study, featured in the Journal of Food Science, found that reducing sugar by 25% didn’t significantly change how people perceived the chocolate. The researchers explain:

“Chocolate consists of suspended particles in a fat matrix, including cocoa solids, sugars, and other ingredients. Changing the size, composition, and amount of these particles can change the perceived texture.”

That said, the particle size of rice and oat flours are similar to cocoa starch granules, making them a good fit. The study noted that a 50% sugar replacement made a noticeable difference from the full-sugar product. While flour has been linked to dry and chalky textures, chocolates with oat flours were described as ‘creamy’ and “soft’ even though they were instrumentally the coarsest.

Our SproutedByNature flours are highly soluble so they don’t feel dry and chalky in your mouth like native flours and can be used to replace more of the sugar. They have a clean taste, don a consumer-friendly label and contribute to wholegrain nutrition. Being naturally low in sugars, we recommend pairing them with a natural high-potency sweetener to satisfy your sweet tooth.

At Paragon Pure, we’re excited to keep exploring these innovative ingredients to bring you healthier, sustainable, and delicious treats. Our journey to create the perfect reduced-sugar chocolate is ongoing, and we can’t wait to share our latest creations with you. 

Meantime, feel free to reach out with any questions or suggestions. Together, let’s make indulgence a little bit healthier without sacrificing the delicious taste we all love!

Want to request a sample of SproutedByNature? Don’t hesitate! Reach out today and a member of our team will get back to you ASAP.