FDA releases new guidance for low-calorie sweetener allulose

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance called ‘The Declaration of Allulose and Calories from Allulose on Nutrition and Supplement Facts Labels.’

Allulose is a low-calorie sweetener, which naturally occurs in wheat, certain fruits and a wide range of food products in small amounts. It can also be manufactured.

The guidelines provide a view on the declaration of calories, carbohydrates and total sugars, as well as added sugars for products that contain allulose, on nutrition and supplement facts labels.

FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition director Susan Mayne said: “Ensuring that consumers have current, science-based information is one of the key goals of our Nutrition Innovation Strategy.

“We want Americans to be able to easily determine the most relevant and useful information available when looking at Nutrition Facts and Supplement Facts labels. One of the several approaches we’ve taken to achieve this important goal is issuing new labelling guidance when we identify an area where further clarity is needed.

“Today, we’re taking such a step by issuing draft guidance on the labelling of allulose, a sweetener that may be used as a substitute for certain sugars in foods, so that the information presented on Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels appropriately represents its unique properties.”

As per the FDA’s 2016 Nutrition Facts label rule, the quantity of allulose needs to be counted towards the amount of total carbohydrates, total sugars and added sugars declared on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels.

Additionally, the 2016 Nutrition Facts label rule states that allulose must be counted as four calories per gram of sweetener on Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels.

In the draft guidance, the FDA intends to exercise enforcement discretion, which will allow manufacturers to exclude allulose from the amount declared in the total and added sugars declarations.

According to the new guidance, the FDA also intends to exercise enforcement discretion to allow manufacturers to use 0.4 calories per gram of allulose when calculating the calories from allulose in a serving of a product.

However, the FDA noted that food manufacturers must continue to include allulose in the total carbohydrates declaration.

The FDA plans to release additional guidance to help manufacturers in complying with new labelling requirements.