Can you make jam with Splenda, stevia, monk fruit or allulose?

Yes for Splenda (sucralose) and stevia, as long as you use a pectin that does not need sugar to gel: a "no sugar needed" pectin or a calcium-set pectin such as Pomona's, following its directions. Both sweeteners hold up to heat. Monk fruit, allulose and erythritol blends are different: as of October 2026, no USDA, National Center for Home Food Preservation or extension source has a tested canning recipe for them, so treat jam made with them as a refrigerator or freezer product. No sweetener can replace the sugar in a regular pectin recipe. This page goes sweetener by sweetener, shows where the tested guidance stops, and covers what you can call the result.

Your pectin decides which sweeteners work

In a regular pectin recipe, sugar is part of the gel. Washington State University says artificial sweeteners cannot replace that sugar, because the gel will not form without it; they can be used only with modified pectin or with gelatin [2]. New Mexico State goes further for sucralose: it cannot replace the required sugar in a regular liquid or powdered pectin recipe, and it cannot be used in a long-boiled, no-pectin jam meant for the shelf [5].

So the first question is which pectin you have.

• Regular pectin (the standard yellow or white box, or liquid pouches): sugar only, in the amount the recipe says. No substitutes.
• Low- or no-sugar pectin: the insert tells you which sweeteners it was developed with and when to add them. Penn State points readers to exactly that: commercial pectin package inserts say when to add these sweeteners [1].
• Calcium-set pectin (Pomona's): works with most sweeteners, or none, because calcium builds the gel. How it works is on calcium-set pectin.

Sweetener by sweetener

Sucralose (Splenda)

Sucralose is the best-documented substitute. Penn State says it stays sweet through canning and that tested recipes exist for jams, but also that it lacks sugar's preservative properties, so it is not a fit for traditional preserves [1]. You can make jam and jelly with it using no-sugar-needed pectin [1].

How to use it:

• With a no-sugar pectin: follow the insert's sucralose recipe exactly. Some freezer jam pectins also give a sucralose option; one New Mexico State freezer jam recipe uses 4 cups crushed fruit with either 1 1/2 cups sugar or 1/2 cup sucralose and one packet (5 tablespoons) of freezer or instant pectin [5].
• With calcium-set pectin: the UC Master Food Preserver handout for Pomona's lists cup-for-cup Splenda among the sweeteners that measure like sugar [7]. Use Pomona's dispersal rules: stir the pectin into the dry sweetener before it meets the fruit.

Where sources disagree. Oregon State tells readers to follow the low-sugar pectin's package directions, which may include a sucralose option, and to process those spreads for 10 minutes and store them at room temperature [6]. New Mexico State recommends that products made with sucralose be frozen or refrigerated [5]. This page follows the pectin maker's tested directions and Oregon State when the insert itself gives a sucralose recipe and a processing time, because that is a recipe developed for that sweetener. For anything the insert does not cover, follow New Mexico State and keep it cold.

Stevia

Stevia is heat stable and sweet, but it does not give jam the firm texture sugar does, so Penn State says it works in jams and jellies only with low-methoxyl pectin [1]. How you add it depends on the form:

• Cup-for-cup stevia blends (granular products designed to measure like sugar) can be used with Pomona's pectin just as sugar is, according to Pomona [8].
• Concentrated stevia (liquid drops or pure extract) is too little bulk to carry the pectin. Pomona's method is to dissolve the pectin in boiling water or unsweetened juice first, making your own liquid pectin, then add the concentrate [8].
• Truvía Baking Blend: Pomona says to use half the sugar amount, since 1/2 cup of the blend equals 1 cup of sugar [8].

Aspartame and saccharin

Aspartame breaks down with long cooking, so Penn State suggests adding it at the table instead [1]. USDA's jam chapter adds that its sweetening power "may be lost within 3 to 4 weeks" [4]. Leave it out of cooked jam.

Saccharin survives heat better and has been used in jams and jellies, but it can taste bitter [2][3]. Saccharin-sweetened jam once had its own federal standard for artificially sweetened preserves and jams (the former 21 CFR 150.161), which no longer appears in the current CFR. Naming a jam made with any substitute is covered on what you can call your jam.

Where the tested guidance stops: monk fruit, allulose and erythritol

These are the sweeteners people ask about most, and no published tested guidance for home canning with them exists.

Monk fruit. The UC Master Food Preservers of Central Sierra (July 2025) say canning with monk fruit sweetener is not recommended, because "there has been no testing with monk fruit sweeteners to determine their effects on pH" [9]. Their advice is to can fruit without sweetener and add monk fruit when you open the jar.

Erythritol and monk fruit blends. Monk fruit is also sold blended with erythritol. When a home cook asked Ask Extension in 2024 whether her Pomona jam made with a monk fruit and erythritol blend was shelf-stable, the expert answer was that the National Center for Home Food Preservation does not have any validated recipes for it, and that the only route to a tested, shelf-stable version is NCHFP's recipe request process or a process authority [10].

Allulose. No extension, NCHFP or USDA guidance on allulose in jam had been published as of October 2026.

What to do with any of the three:

1. Make the jam with calcium-set pectin following the method for sugar, but treat it as an untested, refrigerator or freezer product. Do not put it on the shelf.
2. Or can a tested sugar or sucralose version and sweeten with monk fruit or allulose at the table, which is what UC suggests [9].
3. If you want to sell a shelf-stable jar sweetened this way, the product needs a process authority's review before it goes to market. See process authorities and scheduled processes.

What changes in the jar when sugar leaves

A substitute stands in for sugar's sweetness and little else. Expect:

• A softer set. WSU notes that low-sugar gels are often softer [2].
• Shorter life after opening. Sugar is part of what keeps an opened jar from molding. Refrigerate after opening and use it sooner than a full-sugar jam [2]; the storage table on low-sugar jam has the numbers that exist.
• Faster color loss, especially in light-colored fruit.

Commercial makers sometimes add a preservative such as potassium sorbate or sodium benzoate to reduced-sugar products to make up for this, and Penn State notes that only sweeteners approved as food additives or recognized as safe may be used in products sold [11]. Neither is a substitute for a tested home process.

What to call it

A jam made with a sugar substitute will not reach the 65 percent soluble solids of a standard jam, so for sale it needs an informative name. Penn State gives "Strawberry Fruit Spread" as the example, and notes that "Reduced Sugar" can be placed before "Jam" or "Jelly" when the product qualifies [11]. Nutrient claims such as "no sugar added" also change your labeling duties; the details live on what you can call your jam and do you need a Nutrition Facts panel?.

Building a batch around the substitute you chose

If you settled on sucralose or stevia, the calcium-set pectin page has the amounts per cup of fruit and the step-by-step method: calcium-set pectin. If you chose monk fruit or allulose and want to keep it simple, a freezer jam is the natural fit: how to make freezer jam.

References

1. Penn State Extension, Zepp, *Canning with Less Sugar*, updated April 21, 2026. https://extension.psu.edu/canning-with-less-sugar
2. Washington State University Extension, Wells-Moses, *Low Sugar Fruit Spreads* (FS236E), September 2016. https://wpcdn.web.wsu.edu/extension/uploads/sites/68/2020/05/FS236E.pdf
3. Penn State Extension, Hirneisen, LaBorde and Zepp, *Let's Preserve: Ingredients Used in Home Food Preservation*, updated September 3, 2019. https://extension.psu.edu/lets-preserve-ingredients-used-in-home-food-preservation
4. USDA, *Complete Guide to Home Canning*, Guide 7: Preparing and Canning Jams and Jellies, rev. 07/2015. https://nchfp.uga.edu/papers/guide/GUIDE07_HomeCan_rev0715.pdf
5. New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension, Flores and Davies, *Making Jam, Jelly, and Sweet Spreads at Home* (Guide E-314), rev. February 2016. https://pubs.nmsu.edu/_e/E314
6. Oregon State University Extension Service, Oehler, *Low-sugar jams, jellies and fruit spreads* (SP 50-765), rev. December 2025. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/food/preservation/low-sugar-jams-jellies/fruit-spreads-sp-50-765
7. University of California Master Food Preserver Program, *Pomona's Cooked Fruit Spreads* (handout, posted March 2025). https://class.ucanr.edu/sites/default/files/2025-03/MFP%20Pomona%20Cook%20Fruit%20Spreads.pdf
8. Pomona's Universal Pectin, *Troubleshooting Questions*, accessed October 2026. https://pomonapectin.com/?p=8
9. UC Master Food Preservers of Central Sierra, *Preserve it! Series: Canning with Monk Fruit Sweetener is Not Recommended*, updated July 2025. https://ucanr.edu/node/167834
10. Ask Extension, FAQ 874830 (Pomona jam with monk fruit and erythritol), answered June 27, 2024. https://ask.extension.org/kb/faq.php?id=874830
11. Penn State Extension, LaBorde, *Food for Profit: Commercial Production of Jams, Jellies and Fruit Butters*, updated May 24, 2024. https://extension.psu.edu/food-for-profit-commercial-production-of-jams-jellies-and-fruit-butters
12. Oregon State University Extension Service, Oehler and Hibbard-Swanson, *Preserving for special diets* (SP 50-646), rev. December 2025. https://extension.oregonstate.edu/es/catalog/sp-50-646-preserving-special-diets