Sugar free

sugar options for everything from ice cream to chocolates and beverages.

Guilt pangs have become an obvious side effect of ice creams and chocolates for the country's increasing health conscious generation. Of course, for the 3.5 crore and growing diabetics, sweet treats can be sinful and sometimes even fatal.

Now, giving sugar a boot from sweet products, food manufacturing giants Amul and Nestle have come up with their sugar-free range of chocolates and ice creams.

Jumping in to grab its own share of the sugar-free pie, makers of energy drink Red Bull have come up with the sugar-free Red Bull and Dabur foods has also launched a new line of no-sugar juices made from soya.

It's hard to miss the Nestle Kit-Kat advertisement on television, clearly showing how cutting down on sugar can help in weight-loss. Launching Kit-Kat Lite in its ad, Nestle's intentions are loud and obvious.

Stewart Dryburgh, general manager, chocolates and confectionery, Nestle India, feels, "Lifestyles are changing rapidly and an increasing number of consumers are looking for healthier options and Kit Kat Lite is sure to appeal to these emerging consumer needs."

With 50 per cent less sugar content than the original chocolate, Kit Kat Lite has been launched specially for the Indian market.

This weekend, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) will launch its sugar-free ice cream as well as pro-biotic ice creams under the Amul brand.

R S Sodhi, chief general manager, GCMMF (Amul), says, "We have been receiving many requests from our consumers for sugar-free products. So, we decided to get into this segment as well. In terms of production, the cost of manufacturing is not much and the main expenditure is marketing of the products."

Towards the end of the month, Amul sugar-free chocolates will also hit the market. The move will mean capturing the expansive market at an early stage at minimal costs. Sugar will be substituted with sweetening agents like fructo-oligo saccharide and sucralose.

With sugar labelled as the biggest cause of calorie build-up and Indians beginning to count calories, the sugar-free product market in India is currently worth Rs 500 crore.

In fact, it is natural to eliminate any product which reads sugar in its list of ingredients, especially among the obese and diabetic. Problems related to the heart and cholesterol have already been addressed by cooking oil manufacturers.

Dabur Foods that targeted health fanatics with its Activ range of juices sans added sugar, under the Real brand, launched an even healthier variety now "" Real Activ Fruit Soya juices in three flavours.

Sanjay Sharma, general manager, sales and marketing, Dabur Foods, says, "After Real Activ, the soya range was the next obvious step for us for our healthy juices. Real Activ juices have done very well in the market and already contribute about 20 per cent to the total Dabur Foods profits. We expect the same response to the soya juices."

Since internationally the soya market is over Rs 1,600 crore ($375 million), and with Amul having already tasted success with its flavoured soya milk, Sharma's optimism may not be unjustified.