With all the new requirements around sugar, we've got sugar-related issues on our minds. So we've made it easier to deal with sugar alcohols in ReciPal. They are now tracked in ingredients, so there's a field for them in the custom ingredient form and an option to add them to your labels under the Optional Nutrients form.

What's In the Database

We've added information to all public ingredients that either (1) are sugar alcohol or (2) have sugar alcohol in their ingredient lists. That includes: hydrogenated starch hydrolysates, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, maltitol syrup, mannitol, sorbitol, sorbitol syrup, xylitol and erythritol.

Of course, if you're listing sugar alcohol in your recipe you should review the Nutrition Breakdown and sense check the label to make sure it's correct.

How To Add Information

For existing private ingredients and new ingredients, you can set the information yourself on the ingredient form. The sugar alcohol field is towards the bottom after the optional vitamins.

The sugar alcohol field is at the bottom of the ingredient form.

If you know you have ingredients with sugar alcohols in them, take some time to update them.

When You Need to Show Sugar Alcohol

For U.S. (FDA) labels, showing sugar alcohol is normally voluntary. But it becomes mandatory if you make a claim about sugar alcohols or make a claim about sugar (like "sugar free" or "no added sugar") but have sugar alcohol in your product.

As soon as you make one of those claims while having sugar alcohols in your product, you must show sugar alcohol in your nutrition facts panel. So if you make a claim and are using ReciPal for your nutrition labels, also make sure you select the Sugar Alcohols option under the Optional Nutrients menu on the label page to show the sugar alcohol! (A formatting note: If there's only one kind of sugar alcohol in your product, you can list it specifically by name; if you've got 2 or more, the line has to say "sugar alcohol," which is what you'll get in ReciPal.)

For Canadian (CFIA) labels, showing sugar alcohol in the nutrition panel is always mandatory when you have any sugar alcohol in your product. The line for it will be included automatically in your ReciPal label when you choose the Canadian format if the sugar alcohol line is more than 0 grams.

Toggling sugar alcohols on a nutrition label. This is the vertical FDA example, but it's the same for other formats. In the Canadian formats it will automatically be toggled if sugar alcohols are more than 0 grams.

Let Us Know What You Think!

We're always working to keep up with requirements and make your lives easier with tools and options. We love hearing from you, so let us know what you think in the comments below.