Sugar isn't always called sugar. Food manufacturers use over 60 different names for sugar on ingredient lists — and most people don't recognise them.
Why Do Foods Use Multiple Sugar Names?
Ingredients are listed in descending order by weight. By splitting sugar across several aliases (e.g. sugar, glucose syrup, dextrose), each one appears lower down the list. This makes a product look less sugar-heavy than it really is.
The Most Common Hidden Sugars
Here are the sugar aliases you'll see most often on UK food labels:
- Glucose syrup — A liquid sweetener made from starch. Found in sweets, cereals, and sauces.
- Maltodextrin — A starch-derived filler with a high glycaemic impact. Common in processed snacks.
- Dextrose — Another name for glucose, derived from corn. Used in sports drinks and baked goods.
- Fructose — Fruit sugar, but when added to processed foods it behaves differently from whole fruit.
- Barley malt extract — A sweetener from sprouted barley. Often found in breakfast cereals.
How to Spot Hidden Sugars
Three quick rules:
- Look for names ending in '-ose' — glucose, fructose, maltose, dextrose, sucrose, lactose
- Watch for anything called 'syrup' — glucose syrup, corn syrup, rice syrup, agave syrup
- Count the sugar sources — if a product lists 3 or more sugar types, that's a red flag
Why Hidden Sugars Matter
Multiple sugar sources can increase glucose spikes and are often a sign of ultra-processed foods. Research links high UPF consumption to increased health risks including obesity, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
Check Your Food Automatically
Instead of reading every label manually, use our Hidden Sugar Checker to scan any ingredient list instantly. Or install the SpikeSaver Chrome extension to see hidden sugars automatically while you shop on Tesco.com.