Cultured sugar is a natural sugar-based preservative used to prolong the shelf life of our product that does not contain any artificial preservatives or additives. In order to meet longer shelf life standards of new retail partners, we added cultured sugar and did not create any differences in taste, consistency or color. Cultured sugar is created through a natural fermentation process with specific bacteria, and meets all the natural food standards of even our most selective retailers like Whole Foods Market.