NourmioIs allulose a sugar alcohol? How to read the US label
See why allulose can appear in an ingredient list while Total Sugars shows zero. Read a US syrup label and work through the FDA calorie factor.
Allulose is a simple sugar called a monosaccharide. On US labels it counts toward Total Carbohydrate. FDA guidance describes enforcement discretion for leaving it out of Total Sugars and Added Sugars and using 0.4 kcal per gram when calculating Calories.
Read the ingredient and carbohydrate lines together
Allulose has a different chemical classification from sugar alcohols such as erythritol. The FDA guidance treats the label lines separately. Total Carbohydrate includes allulose. Under the guidance, the agency intends to allow manufacturers to exclude allulose from Total Sugars and Added Sugars.
The NOW Foods Slender Zero Organic Allulose Syrup panel shows how that can look. The ingredient list gives organic allulose. The stated serving is one teaspoon (7 g).
| Label line | Per stated serving |
|---|---|
| Total Carbohydrate | 5 g |
| Total Sugars | 0 g |
| Added Sugars | 0 g |
| Calories | 0 kcal |
Those numbers are what the panel declares. The 7 g serving weight and the rounded carbohydrate line do not establish an exact mass of allulose.
See how a small calorie amount can display as zero
The FDA guidance gives a general factor of 0.4 kcal per gram for allulose. If a hypothetical serving contained exactly 10 g of allulose, that ingredient would contribute 10 × 0.4 = 4 kcal before rounding. US labeling rules allow an amount under 5 kcal per serving to be expressed as zero.
That calculation uses a separate hypothetical serving. Use the printed energy number for the actual syrup if that is the best information you have.
Keep the rows separate when logging
Read the serving size and use the fields your diary asks for. A zero in Total Sugars can appear next to a nonzero Total Carbohydrate number. If the ingredient list includes more than one sweetener, use the nutrition panel for the product as sold. See how to read the two sugars rows together for the general US panel. Check the corresponding rules for other ingredients or countries.