Food ingredient · Sweetener (sugar)
Invert sugar
Sugar syrup split into glucose and fructose; stays soft and moist.
- Added sugar or syrup
- Industrial sugar or starch hydrolysate
- Refined sugar or syrup
- Ultra-processing marker
- Expert review pending
Concern level
A regulatory warning or restriction somewhere, or strong evidence of harm at typical intake. The concern level sets how many points invert sugar costs on a product’s receipt.
What the evidence says
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Added sugarStrong evidence
An added sugar. WHO strongly recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of energy; US guidelines say no amount of added sugars is recommended for a healthy diet. EFSA calls sugar a known cause of tooth decay and links sugary drinks to obesity and type 2 diabetes. [1][2][3]
Evidence tiers say how sure the evidence is, separately from how much it matters. About evidence tiers.
Popular products that list invert sugar
472 of the 17,000 most-scanned products in the US with a GoodSwap page list invert sugar. The 12 most scanned:
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Aussie Bites Universal Bakery · 30 oz (1 lb 14 oz) 850 g Score 9 out of 100 Bad -
Crunchy Breakfast Biscuits Belvita · 1.76 oz Score 15 out of 100 Bad -
belVita Crunchy Blueberry Breakfast Biscuits Belvita · 1.76 oz Score 15 out of 100 Bad -
ClifBar Crunchy Peanut Butter Clif · 2.40 oz Score 15 out of 100 Bad -
Chocolate Chip Energy Bar Clif · 2.40 oz (68 g) Score 18 out of 100 Bad -
Granola Bar Soft & Chewy · 24 g Score 24 out of 100 Poor -
Granola Minis, Chocolate Chip & Mixed Berry Made Good Score 10 out of 100 Bad -
Organic Granola Bites Made Good · 0.85 oz (24 g) Score 12 out of 100 Bad -
Zbar Clif Kid · 36 × 36 g Score 3 out of 100 Bad -
Original Light Pringles · 5.5 oz / 158 g Score 15 out of 100 Bad -
Chocolate Chip Made Good · 5.1 oz (144 g) Score 13 out of 100 Bad -
Original Hawaiian Sweet Rolls King's Hawaiian · 12 oz Score 12 out of 100 Bad
Diets and allergens
- Vegan
- Yes
- Vegetarian
- Yes
- Gluten-free
- Yes
For the ingredient in general. Always check the package: a product’s own labels win.
Names GoodSwap recognizes on labels (20)
- treacle
- cane syrup
- sugar syrup
- golden syrup
- invert sugar
- invert syrup
- liquid sugar
- simple syrup
- sucre inverti
- inverted sugar
- cane sugar syrup
- cane invert syrup
- invert cane sugar
- liquid cane sugar
- invert sugar syrup
- organic cane syrup
- liquid invert sugar
- inverted sugar syrup
- sirop de sucre inverti
- partially inverted sugar syrup
Sources
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Guideline: sugars intake for adults and children
“In both adults and children, WHO recommends reducing the intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake”
who.int
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Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2025–2030
“Limit foods and beverages that include artificial flavors, petroleum-based dyes, artificial preservatives, and low-calorie non-nutritive sweeteners.”
cdn.realfood.gov
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Added and free sugars should be as low as possible
“Sugar consumption is a known cause of dental caries.”
efsa.europa.eu