Maltitol Syrup 75/50 for Sugar-Free Ice Cream and Frozen Dessert

The short version

One pourable ingredient that carries the bulk, the sweetness and the freezing-point control of a frozen dessert mix. This grade is a 75 Brix hydrogenated starch hydrolysate with 50% minimum maltitol on dry basis — E 965(ii), CAS 585-88-6 — supplied in 275kg drums. Clear, colourless, non-crystallizing, and neutral enough in taste that it does not announce itself in a vanilla base.

What it does in the freezer

It moves the freezing point. A frozen dessert is not set by cold alone; it is set by how much of the water in the mix refuses to freeze. Polyols hold part of that water, and on a solids basis this syrup sits close to sucrose in the way it depresses the freezing point — the maltitol fraction does most of the work, the hydrogenated oligosaccharides carry the bulk. The practical result: you can take sugar out of the mix and still scoop at -18 °C, instead of getting a block that has to be tempered before it will come off the spade.

It keeps ice crystals small over shelf life. Ice cream does not fail on day one, it fails in the third month of the cold chain, when crystals grow and the surface turns gritty. The syrup holds free water in the unfrozen phase, and the unfrozen phase is where recrystallisation happens. Less mobile water, fewer large crystals — which is the difference between a product that still looks fresh at the end of its date code and one that does not.

It adds body without adding a flavour. Sweetness is about 75% of sucrose on a solids basis, with no cooling note and no bitter tail. In a dairy base that reads as a slightly lighter sweetness rather than a different one, so the vanilla, cocoa or fruit top notes stay where the formulator put them.

It does not brown. Reducing sugars are held at 0.3% maximum, typically around 0.05%. There is almost no Maillard substrate in the drum, so a warm pasteuriser or a slow cold chain will not push the mix towards a cooked, caramelised tone.

Specification card

The certificate of analysis issued for the lot is the governing document. Energy conversion factors differ between markets — confirm the figure your labelling rules require.

Where it fits in a frozen dessert

Inclusion level is set by your target sweetness, the serving temperature you are designing for, and the claim you intend to make. Treat the figures above as directions of travel, not a recipe — we run the ratio through with you before you commit to a container.

75/50, 80/55 or 85/55 — picking the grade

All three run on the same line, so a change of grade between products does not mean a change of supplier or a new specification file.

When this is the wrong ingredient

We would rather say this here than have you find it in a trial.

You need more than 50% maltitol on dry basis.

• Take 80/55 or 85/55, or move to maltitol powder.

You need a dry, free-flowing ingredient.

• This is a syrup; there is nothing to weigh as a powder.

You cannot carry a polyol declaration.

• Above the polyol threshold in your market the finished product must declare polyols, and above the higher threshold it must carry the laxative-effect statement. That is a labelling consequence of using any polyol syrup, including this one.

You want caramel or toffee notes from the sweetener.

• There is almost no reducing sugar here to brown.

You are designing for very low serving temperature with high overrun.

• A high freezing-point depression in a low-solids mix can push the body soft. Build the solids and the stabiliser together with the syrup, not after it.

Documents, certificates and compliance

ISO 9001 and ISO 22000 with HACCP-based process control; Halal and Kosher certification held. Each shipment travels with a lot-specific certificate of analysis, safety data sheet, specification sheet, Halal certificate, Kosher certificate, non-GMO statement, allergen statement, packing list, commercial invoice and certificate of origin; a health certificate where the destination requires one.

Whether a finished frozen dessert can carry a sugar-free or reduced-sugar claim depends on the whole recipe and on the destination market's rules, not on this ingredient alone. We supply the specification and certificates your regulatory team needs to make that assessment.

Packing and ordering

Standard packing is a 275kg food-grade drum. Moulded from the same stream that goes into the certificate, filled warm, closed under a liner. Buyers running a continuous line can take 1300kg IBCs with a bottom valve, or flexible bags where the receiving area has its own transfer pump.

Warm a cold drum to 40-45 °C and roll or circulate it before drawing, so the solids are uniform. Never let water into the container: dilution lowers the dry substance and raises the water activity of the finished dessert, which changes both the body and the shelf behaviour.