Clean-label ingredients specialist Ulrick & Short has launched Avanté, a sugar replacement aimed at the bakery industry.

Avanté enables manufacturers to reduce sugar by up to 25% in frostings and as much as 50% in some sweet fillings, claimed the company.

Yorkshire-based Ulrick & Short said sugar content could be reduced by up to 50% “with no adverse effect on texture, taste or mouthfeel”.

The tapioca-based product recently made its grocery debut “after a household name retailer used it to reduce the sugar content in cupcake frosting in a Christmas line, with further products targeting children to follow this year”, added the company.

It said in a statement: “The primary challenge in sugar replacement is less to replicate the sweetness and more about retaining functionality and form; in the case of frostings, the key is to maintain structure and volume.”

John Ellis, field support technologist at Ulrick & Short, said: “Reducing fat affects structure and volume and increasing fat adds calories – so that is precisely where Avanté comes in, either on its own or in conjunction with one of our other innovative ingredients.

“Coupled with other ingredients, such as fat replacers, proteins and fibres, food manufacturers have everything they need to provide consumers with healthier alternatives to their favourite foods, including sugar-loaded bakery.”