Apura Ingredients

Consumers and CPG formulators have often thought that to achieve healthy foods, one must also sacrifice taste. Apura Ingredients set out to show the opposite is true, where taste and nutrition function in symbiosis to delivering foods that people love to eat.

One of the largest North American distributors of low-and no-calorie sweetener solutions and flavor modulators, Apura Ingredients understands the complex science behind sugar reduction and flavor modulation. They partner with global brands and their R&D teams to innovate sugar-reduced formulations that taste as good or better than their full-sugar counterparts. With a combined industry experience of 100 years, the company is highly regarded by CPG manufacturers as experts in sugar reduction.

“We utilize a five-point strategy to deliver low-sugar solutions for customers, including client formulation requirements, consumer taste expectations, sweetener assortment, sweetener functionality, and overall cost,” states Nancy Hughes, president of Apura Ingredients.

The health statistics related to sugar consumption reflect the American diet reality. Thirty-four million people across America have diabetes, and 21 percent are undiagnosed. The annual cost for undiagnosed diabetes has hit a staggering peak of $227 billion. The increasing prominence of diseases related to uncontrolled sugar consumption has prompted consumers to change their lifestyles and the government to mandate actions that collaboratively work toward reduced-sugar alternatives.

Apura Ingredients leads the way in recognizing and cultivating health-conscious, flavor-centric alternatives. Their proprietary product, PuraSweet, is designed to reduce sugar by 30 percent while delivering savings on sugar spend up to 25 percent. The product can be labeled as a natural flavor when used at certain usage levels and gives consumers a leading edge to meet internal goals of reduced sugar while remaining cost-conscious.

In 2021, the company partnered with EPC Natural Products Co. Ltd. to expand its product portfolio to include flavor modulators. EPC is a global leader in neuro gastronomy and the science of retronasal sensation of taste stimuli.More simply put, a consumer determines if they will like a food product before it hits the tongue. When synergistically paired with sweeteners, flavor modulators enhance the taste experience by providing functionality to improve mouthfeel, balance sweetness, and enhance flavor. Apura Ingredients leverages key drivers for consumer expectations toward food and beverages to deliver the best-tasting food solutions.

Apura Ingredients goes beyond sweetener distributor services. A partner in formulation deeply entails the sensory experience and science behind the sugar reduction process. The supplier partnerships enable it to meet the demand and deadlines while maintaining environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards. It evaluates the suppliers on the Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit to ensure quality and visibility into its global supply chain.

As consumers’ soaring health and wellness concern drives the demand for sugar substitutes in the global market, Apura Ingredients stands ready to fulfill customers’ needs. In 2022, the firm introduced ten new products, including bulk LNCS (low- and no-calorie sweeteners) and multifunctional taste modulators. These products have multiple applications throughout the beverage industry and deliver health-forward, sustainable consumer solutions.

“We bring deep expertise in the sweetener industry through our team, which spans experience in multiple functionalities like R&D, commercialization, customer service, supply chain, and global sourcing. Our strong global supplier relationships enable quick material procurement, speeding the product formulation process for clients,” states Dave Douglass, manager of business development at Apura Ingredients.

An instance where Apura Ingredients effectuated its ability to make reduced-sugar products is when it partnered with a customer to reduce 40 percent of the sugar concentration for a popular RTD beverage. In another case study, Apura Ingredients helped a global leader in the alcoholic beverage segment improve its product performance. It created a custom sweetener blend with improved flavor, sweetness, and freshness within eight weeks to meet the production run. The enhanced taste was positively backed by consumer taste panels and is under review for use in additional product lines.

The combined effort of the Apura Ingredients team and its multi-channel partners provides resources for customers to stay at the forefront of reduced sugar products that bring health and taste on the same platter to promote a better lifestyle.