FDA Draft Guidance Excludes Allulose from Added Sugar Disclosure

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued draft guidance allowing food manufacturers to exclude allulose when calculating the amount of added sugars a product contains. Allulose is “approximately 70 percent as sweet as sucrose,” according to a comment FDA received, and “does not have the metabolic properties of fructose or other sugars and does not contribute calories or raise blood sugar levels like other sugars.” FDA has proposed to “exercise enforcement discretion for the exclusion of allulose from the amount of ‘Total Sugars’ and ‘Added Sugars’ declared on the label and the use of a general factor of 0.4 calories per gram for allulose when determining ‘Calories’ on the Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels pending review of the issues in a rulemaking.” Comments on the draft guidance will be accepted until June 17, 2019.