Clean and simple ingredients
Simplify labels and satisfy consumers with clean label ingredients
Consumers want products made from ingredients that are understood, expected and authentic.
They’re counting on food and beverage brands to provide clean and simple labels with fewer-yet-familiar ingredients that are free from undesirable additives. Today, that creates a practical challenge for manufacturers: how do you improve labels without sacrificing performance, affordability or speed to market? And where do you begin when clean label expectations vary by market, retailer, category and application?
As the pioneer in clean and simple ingredients, Ingredion combines proprietary consumer insights, formulation expertise and a broad portfolio of clean label solutions to help you identify the changes that matter most. Whether you are removing less preferred ingredients, shortening ingredient lists, improving ingredient recognition or supporting health and wellness goals, we can help you take the next step.
Clean label is not a pass/fail standard. It is a path of incremental improvement, and Ingredion can help you move forward with greater clarity, efficiency and performance.
Defining clean and simple labels
As leaders in clean label technology and product innovation for more than two decades, Ingredion published the industry’s first clean label definition in 2011, which has been widely accepted as an industry standard by both suppliers and manufacturers.
Clean label products are:
- Made with ingredients that are recognised and accepted by consumers
- Free of ingredients that are artificial sounding or misleading
- Made without genetically modified ingredients, or non-GM
- Aligned with the consumer’s understanding of on-pack claims
- Simple labels represent the next level of clean label. They have all the characteristics of clean label, while also using a minimal number of highly accepted ingredients that consumers expect in a specific food or beverage. These products may involve trade-offs to achieve simplicity, such as visual appeal, texture or shelf life.
Find your next clean label move
Clean label progress does not have to happen all at once. The right move depends on your product, category, market, retailer expectations and business objectives.
For some brands, the first step may be removing ingredients consumers perceive as less acceptable. For others, it may mean shortening ingredient lists, improving ingredient recognition, adding health and wellness benefits or optimising texture and nutrition in products that are already well along the clean label path.
Ingredion helps you understand what to change first, why it matters and what can come next. By combining consumer acceptance intelligence with formulation expertise, we can help you prioritize clean label improvements that are practical, meaningful and aligned with the eating experience consumers expect.
Get insights to deliver on consumer expectations
Prioritising your clean label product development and reformulation requires deep understanding of market forces, next-level ingredient options and consumer expectations and preferences. That's why we invest in proprietary consumer, manufacturing and retailer insights and data needed to help you drive clean label success.
Clean label: From buzzword to business driver
Learn how Ingredion empowers brands across categories with functional starches, fibres and scalable clean label solutions that maintain taste and performance.
E-book: Unlocking growth through a smarter clean label approach
Clean label gives brands a clear opportunity to add meaningful consumer benefits and, in many cases, create sustainable business value, including increased sales, premium pricing and positive impacts on brand perception. See how you can get ahead today.
More clean label resources
Whether you're seeking shelf life stability in yoghurt, supporting reformulation in meat applications or exploring clean label texturant options, we have resources to guide your next steps.
Discover Ingredion's broad portfolio of innovative and versatile clean label solutions
Ready to advance your brand with clean and simple labels that deliver value to consumers and support your business goals? Ingredion offers a comprehensive portfolio of clean label ingredient solutions designed to help manufacturers improve ingredient perception, shorten labels and maintain the eating experiences consumers expect.
Our ingredient solutions include functional native starches, co-texturising starches, multifunctional flours, citrus fibres citrus fibres, plant-based proteins, stevia and naturally derived emulsification support so you can make practical formulation changes without losing texture, stability, indulgence or speed to market.
Functional native starches
NOVATION® functional native starches can help manufacturers replace ingredients perceived as undesirable while maintaining texture, flavour, color and performance across a wide range of applications. These clean label texturizers are designed to support formulation needs in dairy, soups, sauces, dressings, bakery, snacks, ready meals, beverages, alternative dairy products and alternative meat products.
With ingredient options from sources such as waxy maize, waxy rice, tapioca and potato, NOVATION® functional native starches help brands create products with the texture and process tolerance they need, along with ingredient listings consumers can better recognize.
Co-texturising starches for indulgent texture
NOVATION® Indulge starches are clean label co-texturizers that can help create creamy textures and improved mouthfeel while supporting shorter ingredient statements. These solutions are especially relevant for products where consumers expect indulgence, such as yoghurts, dairy desserts and alternative dairy products. They can also help brands navigate formulation challenges tied to reduced sugar, low-fat and dairy-free trends, where texture and eating quality are essential to consumer acceptance.
Stevia solutions
Today’s consumers are looking for foods and beverages with less sugar and fewer calories—and without artificial sweeteners. Our plant-based stevia ingredients start with proprietary stevia varietals, which are sustainably grown, minimally processed and traceable back to the farming communities. With unique and proprietary ingredients, compelling provenance and leading technical innovations, our stevia solutions are a great fit for a wide range of food and beverage applications.
Citrus fibres
Ingredion’s FIBERTEX™ citrus fiber platform can help address multiple formulation needs with one consumer recognised ingredient. Citrus fiber can support emulsification, moisture control, texture, stability and mouthfeel while appearing on labels as citrus fiber. These multibenefit solutions can be especially useful across bakery, beverage, plant-based, savory, sauces and dressings applications as brands work to simplify ingredient lists while maintaining functionality and eating quality.
Naturally derived emulsification support
Clean label reformulation often requires more than a single ingredient swap. In many applications, brands need to manage structure, stability, texture, shelf life and sensory appeal at the same time. Ingredion can help identify ingredient systems and formulation approaches that support emulsification and product quality while aligning with clean label objectives.
More than ingredients
Ingredion is more than an ingredient supplier. We help brands make better decisions about what to change, why it matters and what comes next. As a trusted partner of food and beverage brands around the world, we provide:
- Guidance based on consumer acceptance and ingredient perception
- Market, retailer, category and application expertise
- Prototypes that help prove feasibility
- Tools and frameworks that can help reduce decision risk
- Formulation support to help brands move from idea to launch with greater speed
Explore our broad portfolio of clean label solutions
Ready to advance your brand with clean and simple labels that deliver value to your consumers and your business? Our comprehensive range of ingredient solutions includes functional native starches, multi-benefit citrus fibres and naturally derived emulsifiers so you can replace what consumers perceive as undesirable and develop new products with shorter lists of consumer-preferred ingredients.
Clean and simple ingredient FAQs
1. Which clean label claims make the most sense?
In all regions, “natural” is one of the most preferred claims, but you will need to do your homework to select the right ones for the product, region and local regulations. Much like ingredients, consumer-preferred claims vary by region. Regardless of your chosen claims, make sure the front-of-pack claims match the back-of-pack ingredient list for trust and transparency. Ingredion can help you evaluate which claims and ingredient choices best align with your category, your market and your consumers’ expectations.
2. Can clean and simple ingredients support business objectives?
Cleaner labels can help strengthen consumer trust, support preference and improve brand relevance. For many consumers, clean and simple labels offer extra value worth paying for — including recognised ingredients, lack of artificial ingredients and third-party verifications/certifications such as non-GMO and organic. In fact, our 2025 ATLAS research revealed that 50% of global consumers are willing to pay 10% or more for claims that are important to them (with the percentage changing depending on the specific claim), with about 14% of all respondents open to a 30% premium.1
3. Is clean label reformulation all or nothing?
No. Clean label is a continuum, not a pass/fail standard. Some brands begin by removing less-preferred ingredients. Others focus on shortening labels, improving ingredient recognition, supporting health and wellness goals or taking a larger step toward category leadership. The right path depends on your formula, your market, your consumers and your business objectives.
4. How can I make sure my clean and simple products stand out?
Formulation expertise, category knowledge and consumer insights work best together. Ingredion can collaborate with you to help meet your business objectives. Count on us for:
- An extensive portfolio of clean and simple ingredients to help meet your specific formulation needs, including process tolerance, shelf stability and cost-in-use
- A diverse offering of multifunctional ingredients that can shorten ingredient declarations and support simple labels
- Proprietary data and insights to help identify ingredients and claims that may create differentiated products
- Expert formulation and product innovation support to help you get to market faster
- Available cost-stability solutions that can help protect margins against supply uncertainty
- Guidance to help you understand where your product sits today and what changes can have the biggest impact first
1 ATLAS, Ingredion Proprietary Global Consumer Research, 2023
Let’s make your goals a reality
Agile collaboration. Deep formulation expertise. Broad portfolio of in-demand ingredients. Market research and consumer insights.
The information described above is solely offered for your consideration, investigation and independent verification. It is up to you to decide whether and how to use this information. Ingredion Incorporated and the Ingredion group of companies make no warranty about the accuracy or completeness of the information contained above or the suitability of any of their products for your specific intended use. Furthermore, all express or implied warranties of non-infringement, merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose are hereby disclaimed. Ingredion Incorporated and the Ingredion group of companies assume no responsibility for any liability or damages arising out of or relating to the foregoing.