What Is Isomalt? The Sweetener Inside Sugar Free Candy

Ours, if you would rather taste it than read about it:

What is isomalt made from?

Isomalt is made from sugar, usually beet sugar. The first step swaps one of the bonds in the sucrose molecule using an enzyme, which gives a different sugar called isomaltulose. The second step adds hydrogen to that. What comes out is isomalt, no longer a sugar at all in the eyes of the nutrition panel.

Because it started as sugar it still bulks, browns and pours like sugar. The hydrogenation step is what changes the rest: the body handles it slowly and the label files it under sugar alcohols, one line below the sugars.

How sweet is isomalt compared with sugar?

Isomalt sweetens at roughly 45 to 60 percent of sugar's strength, depending on concentration and on what else is in the recipe. Call it half.

Half the sweetness of sugar leaves a gap, so isomalt almost never works alone. In our Butter Sweets the ingredient list reads isomalt, water, butter, milk cream, flavoring, salt, then near the end a second sweetener called acesulfame K, topping the sweetness back up to where a candy should be. In the Strawberry and Cream candy maltitol syrup sits alongside the isomalt from the start.

Why does isomalt end up in hard candy rather than chocolate?

Isomalt picks up very little moisture from the air, which is the property a hard candy needs more than any other. A hard candy that absorbs moisture goes tacky, then cloudy, then welds itself to the next one in the bag.

It also melts at around 293 to 302 F and does not brown on the way, so a clear candy stays clear and a pale one stays pale. Our candy is made in Greece and carries a 24 month shelf life. The storage line on the back asks for a cool dry place, ideally 59 F and no warmer than 77 F.

Chocolate has the opposite problem. It needs a sweetener that behaves in fat, not water, which is why our chocolate runs on maltitol instead. In our toffees maltitol syrup leads the recipe and isomalt comes second, because a toffee has to bend and a hard candy has to shatter.

What does isomalt do to the nutrition panel?

Isomalt moves almost all of the carbohydrate out of the sugars line into the sugar alcohol line underneath, where it is counted at a lower energy value.

Both panels keep that line optional. A British pack that carries a line called Polyols counts them at 2.4 kcal per gram, a factor set in Annex XIV of assimilated Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. A US Nutrition Facts panel treats that line as voluntary. FDA says a manufacturer may list sugar alcohols under Total Carbohydrate. The line becomes mandatory once the packaging makes a claim involving them.

On our Butter Sweets the panel lands at 91.3 g of sugar alcohols, 0.5 g of sugars and 269 kcal per 100 g. Our sugar free candy is not a low calorie food. The calorie count sits on the same panel.

Is isomalt the same thing as maltitol?

Isomalt and maltitol are different sweeteners out of the same chemical family. Both come off a hydrogenation line and part company after that. Maltitol is sweeter, close enough to sugar to carry a chocolate on its own. Isomalt is less sweet and far more stubborn about moisture, which suits anything that has to set hard and stay that way.

The body absorbs every sugar alcohol slowly and never all of it. In controlled feeding studies, foods sweetened with isomalt produced a lower blood glucose rise than the same foods made with sugar (EFSA scientific opinion on sugar replacers, 2011). That slow absorption is also why a handful at a time suits them better than a whole bag at once. British regulators turned this into one exact sentence, quoted here as ingredient science:

Consumption of foods/drinks containing isomalt instead of sugar induces a lower blood glucose rise after their consumption compared to sugar-containing foods/drinks.

Authorized claim wording on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims register, which is a British labeling permission and not a US claim

Sugars in our sugar free candy sit at 0.5 g per 100 g or below because the sweetening work is done by sugar alcohols. The butter candy filled with chocolate comes from a different Diablo range and is not one of the sugar free candies described here.

Is isomalt safe to eat?

JECFA, the expert committee on food additives run jointly by the FAO and the WHO, cleared isomalt in 1985 with an acceptable daily intake of "not specified", meaning the committee saw no need for a numerical daily limit. In Europe, where our candy is made, its additive number is E953.

The JECFA monograph behind that verdict records laxative effects in people at 20 to 30 g a day. In a later double blind trial, 19 healthy adults ate 30 g of isomalt every day for four weeks. Their stool frequency rose moderately, consistency did not change and the authors described isomalt as well tolerated (British Journal of Nutrition, 2005).

European and British law say any food with more than 10 percent added polyols, the regulatory name for sugar alcohols there, must carry the words "excessive consumption may produce laxative effects" (point 2.4 of Annex III). Every bag of our isomalt candy prints that line among its warnings. US federal rules attach a similar statement, "Excess consumption may have a laxative effect", to two named sugar alcohols only. Sorbitol needs it where foreseeable intake could reach 50 g a day (21 CFR 184.1835) and mannitol at 20 g a day (21 CFR 180.25).

The slow absorption behind that line is also why the feeding studies described above found a lower blood glucose rise after isomalt than after sugar.

Frequently asked questions

Is isomalt bad for you?

No. When the FAO and WHO expert committee on food additives reviewed isomalt, it set no numerical limit on how much a person may eat each day. Like every sugar alcohol it is absorbed slowly, which is why our packs carry the laxative effects line that European rules require above 10 percent sugar alcohols.

Is isomalt natural?

It starts as ordinary beet sugar and is changed by an enzyme and then by hydrogen. Small amounts of isomaltulose, the halfway stage, occur in honey and sugar cane juice. Isomalt itself is made in a factory, so it is best described as sugar derived rather than naturally occurring.

Does isomalt count toward the carbohydrate on a label?

Yes. It sits inside Total Carbohydrate and then gets its own sugar alcohol line underneath, so a pack can show 91.8 g of carbohydrate and 0.5 g of sugars at the same time.

Why does the pack say excessive consumption may produce laxative effects?

British and European labeling rules require that line on any food above 10 percent sugar alcohols, so it is printed on our packs wherever they are sold. The equivalent US requirement names sorbitol and mannitol specifically. It follows from the same slow absorption described above.

Is isomalt suitable if you avoid gluten?

Isomalt is made from sugar, so the ingredient carries no gluten. Whether a finished candy is gluten free depends on the rest of the recipe and the factory, which is why our Butter Sweets are certified gluten free while our toffees state may contain gluten on the pack.

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