Popularity of "Natural" Sugar Claims Explained

The rising popularity of products featuring "natural" sugar have led food manufacturing giants Coca Cola and PepsiCo to feature a new line of beverages that offer old fashioned sugar instead of sweeteners like high fructose corn syrup.

And consumers are loving it.

Now a report on food news from Mintel finds that all foods featuring a label that includes "natural" claims are doing well.

In fact, while the popularity of "plus" and "minus" labels have dropped - meaning labels that feature ingredients that have been added or removed from a product - natural labels have grown in popularity by one third.

Including the natural sugar craze; with the continuing unpopularity of corn syrup, sugar has become the healthier (though not lower in calorie) alternative. This goes double for unrefined sugars, and even brown sugar.

A perfect example of this trend is the new ice-cream line by Haagen-Dazs called "Five." It features only five ingredients, all of which are listed on the front of the package. Consumers seem to be more comfortable purchasing foods that they feel are less complicated, have fewer preservatives, and are closer to nature.

Other "buzzwords" connected to the natural labels craze include "wholesome,""naked," and "authentic."

The children's foods market is also one that has done very well with the drive towards less processing in foods, as parents search for things they can feed their kids that don't feature many preservatives or manufactured ingredients.

Food manufacturers and distributors who want to capitalize on the popularity of natural sugar products - and the natural line in general - can do so by featuring a simpler line of ingredients. The down side to this trend is that food lacking in preservatives doesn't last as well as traditionally packaged foods.

This might mean that such foods would require refrigeration, or at least, less time in transit and on the shelves.