Hidden Sugar Finder
Paste any ingredient list and instantly highlight every added sugar — 90 names sugar hides behind on labels, from dextrose to fruit juice concentrate.
Paste the ingredients from any label — or hit "Try an example" — and every one of the 90 sugar names we check for lights up instantly.
All 90 names for sugar this tool checks+
The obvious ones (22)
If it says sugar, it's sugar — whatever the colour, crystal size, or country of origin.
- sugar
- brown sugar
- white sugar
- granulated sugar
- cane sugar
- raw sugar
- caster sugar
- icing sugar
- powdered sugar
- confectioner's sugar
- beet sugar
- invert sugar
- muscovado
- demerara
- turbinado
- panela
- piloncillo
- rapadura
- jaggery
- sucanat
- golden sugar
- yellow sugar
Syrups & treacles (21)
Liquid sugars. On an ingredient list, 'syrup' almost always means added sugar.
- corn syrup
- high fructose corn syrup
- HFCS
- corn syrup solids
- glucose syrup
- glucose fructose syrup
- isoglucose
- rice syrup
- golden syrup
- refiner's syrup
- malt syrup
- sorghum syrup
- sorghum
- tapioca syrup
- oat syrup
- carob syrup
- molasses
- blackstrap molasses
- treacle
- black treacle
- invert sugar syrup
Juices & concentrates (13)
Concentrating a juice strips the fibre and keeps the sugar — the WHO counts these as free sugars.
- fruit juice concentrate
- apple juice concentrate
- grape juice concentrate
- pear juice concentrate
- raisin juice concentrate
- fruit juice
- fruit nectar
- fruit puree concentrate
- evaporated cane juice
- cane juice
- cane juice crystals
- cane crystals
- fruit sugar
The '-ose' sugars (11)
Chemistry names. The suffix '-ose' is the giveaway: it nearly always means a sugar.
- sucrose
- glucose
- fructose
- crystalline fructose
- dextrose
- anhydrous dextrose
- maltose
- lactose
- galactose
- saccharose
- trehalose
Malts & dextrins (10)
Grain-derived sweeteners. Maltodextrin isn't technically a sugar, but your blood glucose can't tell the difference.
- maltodextrin
- dextrin
- malt extract
- barley malt
- barley malt extract
- barley malt syrup
- malted barley extract
- diastatic malt
- glucose solids
- malt powder
The 'healthy-sounding' ones (13)
Marketed as natural, raw, or unrefined — your body treats them like any other sugar, at 4 kcal per gram.
- agave nectar
- agave syrup
- coconut sugar
- coconut palm sugar
- coconut nectar
- palm sugar
- date sugar
- date paste
- date syrup
- honey
- maple syrup
- maple sugar
- brown rice syrup
Why sugar is so hard to spot on labels
The average US adult eats about 17 teaspoons of added sugar a day — roughly 68–70 g, well over the WHO's 10% ceiling and nearly triple its ideal 5% target (50 g and 25 g on a 2,000-kcal diet). Very little of that comes from a sugar bowl. Most arrives through ingredient lists, wearing a name that doesn't say "sugar."
The naming isn't accidental. Ingredients must be listed by weight, heaviest first — so a cereal sweetened with one sugar might have to put it second on the list. Split the same sweetness across cane sugar, glucose syrup, and fruit juice concentrate, and each individual sweetener weighs less, sliding all three comfortably down the list while sugar may still be the single biggest thing in the box.
The six disguises to know
- Obvious sugars — brown, raw, cane, beet, muscovado, demerara: different crystals, same sugar.
- Syrups — corn syrup, HFCS, glucose syrup, golden syrup, molasses, treacle. "Syrup" on a label means added sugar.
- Juices and concentrates — fruit juice concentrate and evaporated cane juice are juice with the fibre removed and the sugar kept.
- The '-ose' family — sucrose, glucose, fructose, dextrose, maltose. The suffix is the tell.
- Malts and dextrins — barley malt, malt extract, maltodextrin (not chemically a sugar, but digested to glucose just as fast).
- The healthy-sounding ones — agave nectar, coconut sugar, date paste, honey, maple syrup. All free sugars, all 4 kcal per gram.
The position trick: by weight means by amount
Because lists run heaviest-first, position is a built-in sugar meter. A granola bar listing "oats, brown rice syrup, cane sugar, honey…" has three sugars in its first four ingredients — that bar is closer to confectionery than to porridge. This finder flags it when any sugar lands in the top three.
Names tell you sugar is present; the numbers tell you how much. Run the same label's "of which sugars" figure through the Food Label Sugar Decoder (above 22.5 g per 100 g is officially "high"), and when a product turns out worse than expected, the Sugar Swap Finder suggests a lower-sugar alternative. Then log what you actually eat against your daily limit with the Sugar Intake Tracker app — spotting hidden sugar is step one; counting it is what changes it. (This page is label-reading education, not medical advice.)
Frequently asked questions
How many names for sugar are used on food labels?+
Researchers have catalogued well over 60 different names manufacturers use for added sugar; this tool checks ingredient lists against 90 of the most common, grouped into obvious sugars, syrups, juice concentrates, '-ose' chemistry names, malts and dextrins, and 'healthy-sounding' sugars like agave nectar and coconut sugar. A quick rule of thumb: anything ending in '-ose' or containing 'syrup', 'malt', 'nectar', or 'juice concentrate' is almost certainly added sugar.
Why do manufacturers use so many different names for sugar?+
Ingredients must be listed by weight, heaviest first. If a product used one sugar it might have to appear first or second on the list — but split the same sweetness across cane sugar, brown rice syrup, and fruit juice concentrate and each individual sugar weighs less, pushing all three further down the list. The product looks grain-first at a glance while sugar may still be the biggest ingredient overall.
Is maltodextrin a sugar?+
Technically no — it's a starch-derived polysaccharide, so it often doesn't even count in the 'of which sugars' line on the nutrition panel. But your body breaks it down to glucose very quickly, and its glycaemic index (around 85–105) is higher than table sugar's (around 65). If you're cutting sugar for blood-glucose or weight reasons, treat maltodextrin like an added sugar.
Do honey, agave nectar, and coconut sugar count as added sugar?+
Yes. The WHO's definition of free sugars explicitly includes honey, syrups, and fruit juice concentrates alongside table sugar, and all of them deliver the same 4 calories per gram. They all count toward the recommended limit of under 10% of daily calories — 50 g on a 2,000-kcal diet, ideally under 25 g.
How much sugar counts as 'a lot' on a label?+
Under the UK's front-of-pack traffic-light system, a food is high in sugar (red) above 22.5 g of total sugars per 100 g, and low (green) at 5 g or less; for drinks, red starts above 11.25 g per 100 ml. Position matters too: because ingredients are listed by weight, any sugar in the first three ingredients means the product is substantially sugar.
Is anything I paste stored anywhere?+
No — matching runs entirely in your browser, and nothing you paste is uploaded, logged, or stored. The tool is label-reading education, not medical advice: if you manage diabetes or another condition affected by sugar, follow your clinician's individual guidance.
Now track it daily
Knowing the number is step one — seeing it every day is what changes it. Sugar Intake Tracker, our iOS app in development, logs added sugar from a photo of your food: snap it, confirm the AI estimate, done.
Meet the appAI estimate · You confirm · Your log stays on your device