Daesang Corporation brought its allulose sweetener and Capsulaid™ encapsulation ingredient to IFT FIRST 2026 in Chicago, using the world's largest food science expo as a platform to press its case for global ingredient market leadership. The South Korean supplier exhibited July 13–15 at McCormick Place, targeting formulators and procurement teams working across clean-label, vegan, and low-sodium development pipelines.
Allulose and Capsulaid™
Allulose, a rare sugar that delivers roughly 70% of sucrose sweetness at a fraction of the caloric load, sits squarely in the crosshairs of reformulation demand as food manufacturers hunt for sugar-reduction tools that preserve mouthfeel and browning functionality. Daesang, which brings seven decades of fermentation and biotechnology expertise to the category, positions its allulose as a GRAS-eligible ingredient suited for beverage, bakery, and confectionery applications where clean-label claims and minimal processing footprint matter to brand owners.
Capsulaid™, the company's proprietary encapsulation platform, addresses a different but equally active formulation challenge: protecting sensitive actives — including vitamins, minerals, and flavor compounds — through processing stress and extending functional shelf life in finished products. Encapsulation technology of this type is increasingly relevant to co-manufacturers handling functional food and supplement-adjacent SKUs, where ingredient stability directly affects COA compliance at point of delivery.
Why It Matters
Daesang's IFT presence signals continued upstream investment by Korean ingredient conglomerates in Western B2B sales infrastructure. The company competes in allulose alongside a small number of global producers, and its appearance at IFT FIRST — attended by thousands of food scientists, R&D directors, and sourcing managers — underscores a push to convert technical credibility into commercial contracts with North American and European food manufacturers. Low-sodium positioning, cited alongside clean-label and vegan alignment, points to active development around sodium-reduction systems, a segment under sustained regulatory and consumer pressure globally.
For procurement teams, the exhibition represents a chance to benchmark Daesang's ingredient specifications — particle size, moisture content, bulk density, and MOQ structures — against competing allulose and encapsulation suppliers before locking in contract manufacturing or toll processing agreements. The sweetener and sugar-reduction category and the functional ingredient space both reward suppliers who can demonstrate consistent TDS performance across global supply chains, and Daesang's seven-decade fermentation heritage provides a verifiable process anchor for that conversation.
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.
