As global food and beverage brands push toward cleaner labels, healthier recipes, and low-GI formulations, one recurring challenge keeps coming up: taste and stability often suffer when sugar, fat, and artificial ingredients are reduced. Functional ingredients such as plant extracts, peptides, minerals, or high-intensity sweeteners can introduce bitter notes, unpleasant aromas, or poor solubility.
This is where cyclodextrin steps in as one of the most versatile and science-backed tools in modern formulation. But what exactly can cyclodextrin do, and why do innovative companies—especially those developing low-GI or functional products—rely on it more than ever?
Let’s take a closer look.
What Makes Cyclodextrin So Useful in Food and Beverage Development?
Cyclodextrin is a cyclic oligosaccharide with a unique molecular structure that allows it to encapsulate unwanted tastes or unstable ingredients. This “host–guest” ability brings multiple benefits:
1. Effective Taste Masking
Many active ingredients—plant polyphenols, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, natural extracts—taste inherently bitter. Cyclodextrin can reduce:
Bitterness
Astringency
Metallic off-notes
Harsh herbal flavors
It does this without adding sweetness or altering nutritional values, making it ideal for clean-label and low-GI products.
2. Improved Stability for Sensitive Ingredients
Cyclodextrin shields ingredients from:
Oxygen
Light
Heat
pH fluctuations
This increases shelf life and protects nutrients in beverages, supplements, fortified snacks, and functional foods.
3. Enhanced Solubility
Many plant-based actives, flavors, and natural oils dissolve poorly in water. Cyclodextrin enhances solubility, enabling:
4. Controlled Release in Functional Products
Cyclodextrin can release active ingredients gradually, helping:
Its controlled-release capability opens a wide range of innovative applications.
How Does Ascend MegaBio Innovate with Cyclodextrin?
At Nanjing Ascend MegaBio Technology Co., Ltd., cyclodextrin isn’t treated as a basic commodity ingredient—it is a platform for innovation.
Thanks to our combined strengths in enzyme engineering, metabolic engineering, and green chemistry, our team has developed a series of high-quality cyclodextrin derivatives designed specifically for taste improvement and enhanced functionality.
Our production base in Lanzhou—spanning 30,000 m² and built under ISO9001 and FSSC22000 standards—allows us to supply cyclodextrin for:
Food
Beverage
Cosmetics
Pharmaceuticals
Nutraceuticals
Agriculture
Each batch is supported by modern testing centers and strict quality controls.
How Does Cyclodextrin Work with NeverBitter™ for Better Taste?
While cyclodextrin is powerful on its own, the combination with Ascend MegaBio’s NeverBitter™ flavor modifier unlocks even greater performance in reducing bitterness and improving mouthfeel.
Together, they help:
Mask bitterness from natural plant extracts
Smooth the sweetness curve of low-GI sugar alternatives
Reduce aftertaste caused by vitamins or minerals
Stabilize flavors in ready-to-drink beverages
Improve taste in high-protein snacks or shakes
Even formulations traditionally considered difficult—like amino-acid beverages, herbal tonics, peptides, and sports supplements—can achieve a cleaner, more pleasant sensory profile.
Why Are Low-GI Products Especially Dependent on Cyclodextrin?
The rapid rise of low-GI foods has created new technical challenges:
Erythritol and stevia can taste bitter
Some sugar alternatives have cooling effects
Plant-based fibers add astringency
Natural sweeteners can be unstable
Cyclodextrin helps reduce these issues while maintaining the nutritional benefits of low-GI formulations. As a deputy head unit in drafting low-GI food standards, Ascend MegaBio focuses heavily on improving both healthiness and taste—because better taste leads to higher consumer acceptance.
Cyclodextrin is no longer just an additive—it's a powerful enabler for next-generation food and beverage innovation. From taste masking to stability enhancement, it helps brands create healthier, greener, and more appealing products.
With advanced technologies like NeverBitter™, and with Ascend MegaBio’s commitment to synthetic biology and green chemistry, the future of taste improvement and clean-label formulation is already here.