North American allulose sales at Daesang Corporation surged 450% year over year in 2025, as the South Korean food and bio company deepens its footprint across the beverage, dairy, confectionery, nutrition, and sauce sectors. The company's customer network has grown to approximately 30 companies within just two years of entering the North American market in 2023.
The Growth Drivers
The spike in demand reflects a broader structural shift in the North American food market. Consumers are increasingly scrutinizing sugar intake, a trend that has been amplified by dietary pattern changes associated with GLP-1 medications. For food manufacturers, that consumer pressure translates directly into formulation challenges — finding ingredients that reduce sugar and calories without sacrificing taste, texture, or mouthfeel. Allulose, a rare sugar found naturally in figs and raisins, checks those boxes: it delivers approximately 70% of sugar's sweetness while contributing only about 10% of its calories. In applications ranging from carbonated beverages and sports drinks to jams, ice cream, and baked goods, it can maintain desirable sensory qualities that many other sweetener substitutes struggle to replicate.
For restaurant and foodservice operators sourcing reduced-sugar products — or working with suppliers on private-label lines — the rapid commercial traction of allulose signals that the ingredient is moving from niche to mainstream across multiple food and beverage categories.
Sweevero and Supply Infrastructure
Daesang is positioning its Sweevero platform, launched in 2024, as more than an ingredient supply arrangement. The brand bundles allulose with complementary sweetening ingredients, custom blends, and taste modulation technologies, effectively offering food manufacturers a consultative sugar-reduction toolkit rather than a commodity purchase. Hyo-hoon Lee, head of Ingredient Marketing at Daesang, said the goal is to help customers "address the challenges of sugar reduction, particularly in taste and product quality," by pairing production capabilities with customized solutions.
On the supply side, Daesang invested approximately KRW 30 billion in July 2023 to build a dedicated allulose production facility at its starch and sweetener plant in Gunsan, South Korea. The company also holds patents covering allulose-producing enzymes and food product applications. A U.S. subsidiary handles customer support on the ground, providing the localized service infrastructure that North American buyers increasingly require from international ingredient suppliers.
What Operators Should Watch
Daesang's expansion plans extend well beyond the current base. The company intends to move into Canada, Latin America, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia as regulatory frameworks in those markets evolve, and is exploring regional production options to diversify its supply network. For the hospitality and foodservice supply chain, that trajectory matters: a more geographically distributed allulose supply base could ease sourcing constraints and support competitive pricing as adoption scales.
The company is actively showcasing Sweevero at major trade events including Natural Products Expo West, IFT FIRST, SupplySide Global, and Food Ingredients Europe — venues where ingredient buyers and food developers converge. That trade-show presence underscores Daesang's intent to build direct relationships with North American food manufacturers, not just move volume through distribution channels.
As sugar reduction becomes a baseline expectation rather than a premium feature across foodservice menus and packaged goods, suppliers with proven allulose production capacity and application expertise are positioned to be strategic partners for manufacturers reformulating existing lines or developing new lower-sugar SKUs.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
