Wellness-conscious consumers continue turning to sugar alternatives to enhance and sweeten their snacks, beverages, desserts, condiments and more.

One alt-sugar that is showing up in an increasing number of natural product formulations is allulose, an ingredient whose sales grew by 164.2% and represented a market value of $400 million, according to data analyzed by SPINS for the Conventional and Natural Enhanced Channels for the 52 weeks ending June 12, 2022.

Popular with formulators and consumers for its mild taste and agreeable mouthfeel, allulose is naturally occurring in fruits and is essentially calorie free. This up-and-coming sugar alt has not only inspired indulgent formulations but has also moved beyond the sweet foods aisle. It can now be found in categories including spreads, dressings and other condiments—albeit often in combination with other sugar alternatives.

However, despite its growing popularity, New Hope Network consumer research indicates that allulose still has a long way to go in terms of consumer recognition. Only 16% of 1,000 consumers surveyed on April 26, by New Hope Network's NEXT Data and Insights team and powered by the Suzy survey platform, said they considered allulose to be a "natural" sweetener, compared with 46% for stevia and 61% for monk fruit, while 45% of respondents had never heard of it.

Even so, as more products containing allulose become readily available, consumers will have additional opportunities to discover the versatility of this more natural sweetener.

Click through this gallery of allulose products to discover products you'll want to stock.