South Korea's Daesang Corporation stepped onto the global ingredient stage at IFT FIRST 2026, the food science and innovation expo held at McCormick Place in Chicago from July 13 to 15, using the platform to spotlight two flagship offerings: allulose, a low-calorie sugar alternative, and Capsulaid™, an encapsulation ingredient technology built on the company's seven decades of proprietary R&D.
Why Operators Should Care
For foodservice operators and food manufacturers tracking the clean-label and better-for-you ingredient landscape, the timing is deliberate. Demand for low-sodium, vegan-compliant, and transparently sourced inputs continues to reshape menu development and product reformulation across restaurant and retail channels alike. Daesang's dual focus on allulose—which has gained traction as a sugar substitute that browns like sucrose but delivers minimal caloric impact—and Capsulaid™ signals the company's intent to compete directly with established Western ingredient suppliers on functional performance, not just cost.
Allulose has become a closely watched ingredient in beverage, bakery, and sauce applications, where operators seek sweetness without the glycemic load of conventional sugar. Its ability to mimic cooking and browning properties makes it particularly relevant for prepared foods and culinary applications in foodservice. Beverage industry formulators have also accelerated adoption as consumer pressure mounts on added-sugar content in everything from sports drinks to coffee shop syrups.
70 Years of Fermentation Science
Daesang's competitive positioning rests heavily on its fermentation and bioprocessing heritage, which underpins both products on display at IFT FIRST. Capsulaid™ represents the company's encapsulation platform, designed to protect sensitive ingredients through processing and delivery—a technology with clear applications in functional foods, dietary supplements integrated into foodservice offerings, and shelf-stable restaurant ingredients. The company framed its IFT participation as a milestone in cementing global market leadership, a goal that places it in direct competition with multinational ingredient giants already entrenched in North American and European supply chains.
IFT FIRST consistently draws food scientists, product developers, and procurement professionals from across the foodservice, retail grocery, and food manufacturing sectors, making it the most strategically significant venue for an ingredient supplier seeking to expand its buyer network outside its home market. Daesang's presence at McCormick Place—one of the country's premier convention venues for food industry events—gave the South Korean company direct access to that audience at scale.
As reported across the Food & Beverage Magazine network, ingredient suppliers from Asia have increasingly invested in North American trade show presence as U.S. buyers seek supply chain diversification and novel functional inputs. Daesang's IFT debut positions the company to convert that market curiosity into procurement conversations.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
