Free from sweeteners

Most capsules and tablets never need a sweetener. Powders, chewables and liquids are different: a sweetener is often added to cover a bitter, salty or metallic taste. This collection gathers the products that skip that step, so nothing on the list of ingredients is there to balance flavour. It sits next to our other diet filters, which you can combine with this one.

What counts as a sweetener on a UK label

Sweeteners are food additives. The Food Standards Agency lists 22 that are approved for use in Great Britain, and they fall into two groups. High-intensity sweeteners are used in very small amounts: sucralose, aspartame, acesulfame K and steviol glycosides from the stevia leaf. Bulk sweeteners, also called polyols or sugar alcohols, are used in much larger amounts: erythritol, xylitol, sorbitol and maltitol. Both groups count here. A powder sweetened with stevia is not sweetener-free, even when the front of the tub says natural.

Sweetener-free is not the same as sugar-free

These two claims answer different questions. Sugar-free is about sugar content, and it usually means another sweetener is doing the work instead. Sweetener-free means no sweetener additive at all, yet the product may still contain sugars, for example glucose syrup or fruit juice concentrate in a gummy. Flavourings are a third, separate category: a product can be sweetener-free and still taste of orange. If flavourings matter to you as well, look at our selection without artificial flavours.

Who chooses these products

People filter on this for practical reasons:

• the liquorice-like aftertaste of stevia, or the sweetness of sucralose in a daily shake, becomes tiring;
• a low FODMAP plan means avoiding polyols such as sorbitol and maltitol;
• powder goes into porridge, yoghurt or soup, where added sweetness is unwanted;
• several supplements a day add up, so additives are kept low across all of them.

In categories built around drinking, sweetened is still the norm. With electrolyte drink powders and flavoured proteins, an unflavoured version is usually the only sweetener-free route.

How we choose the products in this collection

We start with the form, because that decides most of it. Capsules, tablets, oils and drops rarely need a sweetener, so they make up the core here. For powders we stock unflavoured versions from brands that keep the dose intact: a shorter label is no reason to accept less magnesium or less protein per serving. We only list products whose ingredients we can explain line by line, and each one passes our compliance team before it goes live. We buy directly from the brands, we test products ourselves and independent labs spot-check batches. See how we select brands and products.

Be realistic about taste

Unflavoured whey is mildly milky, plant protein tastes earthy, magnesium powder is slightly bitter and liquid B-vitamins have a strong note of their own. Mixing them into food, or choosing a capsule instead of a powder, solves most of that. What you get back is a list of ingredients you can read in five seconds, and full control over what you sweeten yourself. If you are switching from a flavoured product, give your palate a week or two: the first shake tastes plainest, and after that most people stop noticing.