Sugar substitute

A sugar substitute is any ingredient that sweetens food in place of table sugar. The group includes high-intensity sweeteners such as sucralose and aspartame, plant-derived sweeteners like purified stevia extracts and monk fruit, and sugar alcohols such as erythritol.

The US Food and Drug Administration explains that many of these are far sweeter than sugar, so only small amounts are needed and they add little or no energy to the foods they flavor.

In baking they do not behave exactly like sugar. Sugar also provides browning, moisture, bulk, and structure, so swapping one for another can change texture and color. Recipes designed for a specific substitute usually adjust the other ingredients to compensate, and results vary between products.