The trend of “healthy sweetness” to minimize calorie and sugar intake while enjoying the sweetness as it is hitting the food industry. In particular, as interest in health and well-being is increasing among the younger generation, the size of the related market is increasing day by day. The size of the domestic mortgage product market estimated by the industry was only less than 100 billion won until the mid-2010s, but surged to 300 billion won in 2022 when healthy sweetness began to attract attention. The prevailing observation is that it will exceed 400 billion won this year. In line with this trend, the food industry is also actively launching new products that lower or eliminate sugar by using alternative sweeteners such as allulose and stevia. Premium dessert brand Notid launched four types of low-sugar doughnuts earlier this year, including low-sugar cream doughnuts, low-sugar matcha cream doughnuts, low-sugar chocolate cream doughnuts and low-sugar cream doughnuts. Originally, it was scheduled to be sold only for the season, but immediately after its launch, it attracted a hot response from consumers and switched to the regular menu.
According to Noted, mortgage doughnuts accounted for 15% of total doughnut sales from 6% at the beginning of its launch to 15% as of June. Mortgage cream doughnuts ranked No. 1 in cumulative sales among the new doughnut menus released by Noted this year.
After confirming that healthy sweetness has a positive effect on actual sales, Noted introduced additional drinks with reduced sugar, including zero sugar lemonade, and on the 11th, it launched “Smile Low Choco Cake” to expand its low-sugar product lineup. Binggrae launched a new low-sugar ice cream brand called “Deep & Low.” Deep & Low is a concept of “Deep in Taste and Low in Sugar,” which means that you can feel the taste deeply while reducing the sugar content. It uses allulose instead of sugar to lower the content per 100g of product to less than 5g. It has steadily increased its product line and is currently selling a total of six products. Recently, it has continued its aggressive marketing by selecting Jang Won-young, the representative member of the popular girl group IVE, as a brand model. In line with lifestyle trends that value health, such as health flares and low-speed aging, Daesang Cleanwon introduced the “Low Tag” emblem in April, which allows you to intuitively recognize that it is a low-spec product that meets the requirements for emphasis set by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, such as sugars and calories. In addition, Daesang quickly established a total of 10 product lineups, including 5 types of sauces, 2 types of red vinegar, and 3 types of dressing, using “allulose” per replacement developed in Korea.
Thanks to this, 10 types of LowTag products achieved cumulative sales of 10 billion won in about 100 days after their launch. In particular, the company explained that it created new demand for consumers who felt burdened by sugar and calories while maintaining existing sales, leading to overall sales growth in the category.
In the future, Target Cleanwon will launch three new sauces, including oyster sauce, sweet chili sauce, and pork cutlet sauce, starting with low-priced ssamjang, and in September. In addition, it plans to complete a total of 20 low-tag lineups by the end of this year by expanding its product portfolio to meat marinade as well as sauces such as mayonnaise, ketchup, honey mustard, and seasoned chicken, which are frequently used at home.
“It has changed to an era where people seek ‘delicious and healthy food’ beyond ‘delicious food’,” a source in the food industry said. “The demand for healthy sweetness will continue to increase in the future,” he said. “In line with this, low-calorie and low-calorie products using alternative sweeteners have become new growth engines for the food industry.”
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
