What Is Allulose Made From?
What is allulose made from? This is one of the most common questions people ask. Allulose exists naturally in figs, raisins, jackfruit, and maple syrup. The allulose you buy is made from corn or other plant sources through an enzymatic conversion process that is safe and well-established.
Allulose in Nature
Allulose (D-psicose) occurs naturally in small quantities in several foods:
- Figs: One of the richest natural sources
- Raisins: Small amounts present naturally
- Jackfruit: Contains allulose in the fruit pulp
- Maple syrup: Trace amounts
- Wheat: Small quantities in wheat and wheat products
- Molasses: Trace amounts
The amounts are tiny — we're talking fractions of a gram per serving of any of these foods. You'd need to eat an impractical amount of figs to get a meaningful dose of allulose from food alone.
How Commercial Allulose Is Made
Since natural extraction would be impossibly expensive and inefficient, commercial allulose is produced through enzymatic conversion:
Step 1: Start With Fructose
The process begins with fructose (fruit sugar), which is abundantly available and inexpensive. Fructose is typically derived from corn starch through a well-established industrial process.
Step 2: Enzymatic Conversion
An enzyme called D-psicose 3-epimerase (or D-tagatose 3-epimerase, depending on the source organism) converts fructose into allulose. This enzyme catalyzes a simple rearrangement: it flips the orientation of one hydroxyl group at the C-3 position, converting D-fructose into D-allulose.
The enzyme is produced by bacteria (commonly Agrobacterium tumefaciens or Clostridium cellulolyticum) through fermentation, then purified.
Step 3: Purification
After enzymatic conversion, the mixture contains both unreacted fructose and allulose. These are separated using chromatography — a technique that exploits the slight differences in how the two sugars interact with a separation medium. The result is highly pure allulose.
Step 4: Crystallization and Drying
The purified allulose solution is concentrated and crystallized to produce the granulated allulose you buy. Some products are sold as liquid (syrup) form, skipping the crystallization step.
Is This Process "Natural"?
This is where it gets philosophical. Here's the case for both sides:
Arguments That Allulose Is Natural
- The starting material (fructose) is a natural sugar
- The enzyme (D-psicose 3-epimerase) occurs naturally in bacteria
- The conversion from fructose to allulose happens in nature (it's how allulose ends up in figs and other foods)
- The end product is chemically identical to the allulose found in nature
- No synthetic chemicals are involved in the process
Arguments That Commercial Allulose Isn't "Natural"
- The enzymatic process is industrially optimized — it doesn't happen this way in a fig
- The starting fructose is often derived from corn (via corn syrup), which is itself a processed product
- The scale and precision of manufacturing are industrial
- "Natural" is not a well-defined regulatory term for food ingredients
What the FDA Says
The FDA does not have a formal definition of "natural" for food ingredients. However, they generally consider foods processed with enzymes (as opposed to synthetic chemicals) to be closer to the natural end of the spectrum. The FDA has not objected to allulose being described as a "rare sugar" or "natural sugar."
How This Compares to Other Sweeteners
Understanding the production process of other sweeteners provides useful context:
Monk Fruit Extract
Also produced through an industrial process. The monk fruit is harvested, crushed, and the juice is extracted and purified to isolate mogrosides (the sweet compounds). While the source is natural, the extraction and concentration process is industrial. Similar to allulose in this regard.
Erythritol
Produced by fermenting glucose with yeast (Moniliella pollinis). The yeast naturally produces erythritol as a byproduct. This is very similar to allulose production — natural organisms creating the product through biological processes.
Stevia
Stevia leaves are harvested and the sweet compounds (steviol glycosides) are extracted using water or ethanol, then purified. Again, a natural source with industrial processing.
Sucralose
Produced by chemically modifying sucrose — three hydroxyl groups are replaced with chlorine atoms. This is a synthetic process that produces a molecule not found in nature. Clearly different from allulose.
Aspartame
Fully synthetic. Two amino acids (aspartic acid and phenylalanine) are chemically joined. The resulting molecule doesn't occur in nature.
Table Sugar (Sucrose)
Extracted from sugar cane or sugar beets through an industrial process involving crushing, boiling, crystallization, and refining. If you wouldn't call white sugar "unnatural," the case for calling allulose "unnatural" is weak.
The Practical Perspective
Here's what matters most:
- The molecule is identical to what's found in figs, raisins, and jackfruit. Your body cannot tell the difference between allulose from a fig and allulose produced enzymatically. They are the same compound.
- The process is clean. Enzymatic conversion is one of the gentlest food processing methods. No harsh chemicals, no high-pressure treatments, no irradiation. Just an enzyme doing what it does naturally.
- Safety is well-established. Whether you call it natural or not, the safety profile of allulose is excellent. GRAS status, no known toxicity, decades of use in Japan.
- The alternative sweeteners aren't more natural. Every commercial sweetener goes through industrial processing. The question isn't "is it processed?" (everything is) but "what kind of processing, and is the end product safe and beneficial?"
The Jackfruit Connection
At JacaSugar, we're particularly interested in allulose because of its natural presence in jackfruit (jaca in Portuguese and Spanish). Jackfruit is one of the most remarkable fruits on the planet — the world's largest tree-borne fruit, with a sweet, tropical flavor and incredible versatility.
While commercial allulose isn't extracted directly from jackfruit (it would be prohibitively expensive), the natural presence of allulose in jackfruit helped inspire our brand and our commitment to this extraordinary sweetener. The jackfruit represents what allulose is at its core: a natural sugar that happens to be metabolically unique.
The Bottom Line
Allulose is as natural as most sweeteners on the market — more natural than artificial sweeteners, comparable to stevia and erythritol, and ultimately just a different form of a sugar that exists abundantly in nature. The manufacturing process is enzymatic, clean, and produces a product identical to what you'd find in a fig.
If "natural" matters to you, allulose is one of the best choices available. But what should matter most is whether it's safe (it is), effective (it is), and beneficial (it is). The "natural" label is a bonus.