Cargill pushes holistic sugar reduction as bakery reformulation challenges intensify

The pressure on F&B manufacturers to cut sugar continues to intensify. As sugar taxes, front-of-pack labeling, and nutrient profiling systems tighten across major markets, manufacturers are moving beyond simple sweetener swaps toward integrated formulation systems. 

According to Cargill, its beverage-led Eversweet stevia sweetener and broader portfolio of polyols, starches, and texturizers reflect a shift away from one-to-one substitution. The company points out that in bakery, especially, the loss of structure, browning, and shelf life makes single-ingredient solutions unworkable.

Food Ingredients First sits down with Nadya Lotay, Cargill’s Food and Beverage commercial marketing director, to discuss what is driving the latest wave of reformulation, where the company is placing its sweetener bets, and how to solve some of the hardest sugar reduction challenges in the bakery category.

Beyond single sweeteners

Lotay states that the consumer signal driving reformulation has sharpened significantly. Cargill’s own TrendTracker research shows that 62% of consumers now read product labels, with sugar among the top ingredients they actively try to limit. That is putting scrutiny not only on sugar levels but on which ingredients are used to replace it.

She adds that regulatory pressure is amplifying that consumer scrutiny. Front-of-pack labeling schemes, sugar taxes, and nutrient profiling systems are converging to push manufacturers off the sidelines and into active reformulation programs.

“The industry is moving beyond single-ingredient replacement strategies toward more integrated formulation approaches that balance sweetness and nutrition,” Lotay explains.

That shift has practical implications for how Cargill positions its own portfolio. Lotay points out that regulatory frameworks themselves can dictate formulation choices in ways that complicate single-sweetener strategies.

“It is important to note that regulatory frameworks influence formulation choices,” she underscores. “The use of certain sweeteners may be restricted in specific applications, requiring alternative approaches such as process optimization and functional ingredient combinations.”

Furthermore, Lotay adds that where high-intensity sweeteners aren’t permitted in a target category or jurisdiction, a portfolio approach combining sweeteners with bulking agents, texturizers, and process adjustments works best.

Functional ingredient implementation

Cargill’s flagship Eversweet stevia, produced through its Avansya joint venture with dsm-firmenich, uses fermentation to produce specific steviol glycosides, focusing on rebaudioside M (Reb M) and rebaudioside D (Reb D). Lotay says the targeting is deliberate.

Cargill sees the industry moving beyond single-ingredient swaps toward integrated sugar reduction approaches.She emphasizes that the aim is a clean, sugar-like taste profile that enables significant sugar reduction without introducing the bitterness or off-notes that have historically held stevia back from broader beverage adoption.

Lotay stresses that beverages are where high-intensity sweeteners can carry the deepest reduction targets, because sweetness perception drives the application more than structure or shelf life. She also notes that beverages are the easier part, while across other categories, sweetening is only one element of the challenge.

“Functional ingredients play a critical role alongside sweeteners,” Lotay says. “Starches, polyols, and texturizing systems help replace sugar’s structural contributions, including bulk, mouthfeel, and stability.”

“These ingredients can also support calorie reduction and, in some cases, improve nutritional density."

Lotay adds that Cargill’s emphasis is on co-development with manufacturers from the start of formulation rather than treating sweetness, texture, and stability as separate problems handled by separate ingredient categories.

Cargill’s holistic reformulation strategy

According to Lotay, if beverages are where high-intensity sweeteners shine, bakery is where reformulation tends to stall. Lotay says the difficulty is structural. Sugar contributes to a system rather than a single attribute, and removing it disturbs every dependent variable at once.

“When sugar is removed, multiple attributes are affected simultaneously, including structure, moisture balance, color development, and shelf life,” she explains. “This creates a multi-variable challenge that cannot be solved through a single ingredient substitution.”

Cargill’s response is to lean on its broader ingredients portfolio in those categories, including polyols, starches, and texturizing systems, combined with high-intensity sweeteners.

Off-notes also become a sharper problem at deep reduction levels. Lotay says bitterness, lingering sweetness, and lack of roundness become more pronounced as sugar is reduced. Moreover, she says taste modulation tools work best when integrated into the broader formulation strategy from the outset rather than added later as corrective measures.

That principle, designing holistically from the start rather than patching late, is how Lotay says Cargill increasingly frames the difference between reformulation projects that ship and those that stall in development.

As regulatory pressure tightens and consumer label scrutiny intensifies, Lotay suggests that the manufacturers moving fastest will be those treating sugar reduction as a system-level design problem rather than a sweetener selection problem.