**4.1 Reduction of sugar**

As already mentioned, the Food Industry needs to diminish the sugar in food and beverages to minimize the impact of sugar consumption in the prevalence of metabolic disorders. Furthermore, public health policy strategies including sugar taxes for food industry accelerate the process. Zero-calorie high-potency sweeteners with improved taste perception are needed as new ingredients. To date, the scientific community has made some efforts to obtain natural sweeteners or designing synthetic compounds with high sweetening power. The most widely artificial sweeteners used in the Food Industry are aspartame, sucralose, saccharine, neotame, advantame and acesulfame potassium-k but whether the use of these sweetener affect our health is still not well understood [72]. Natural alternatives have been explored such as molasses, honey, coconut sugar, date sugar, maple syrup, agave nectar, and xylitol [73]. Most of them are carbohydrates obtained from vegetables, trees, seeds, roots, and nuts. Moreover, dihydrochalcone sweeteners are PC-derived compounds with proved beneficial health effects arising as a good alternative for sugar reduction [74]. However, difficulties associated with browning, replacement of the bulking and other properties that sucrose, glucose and fructose provide in many solid food products must be carefully analyzed.
