NutraEx Food harnesses “plug and play” technology with latest sugar reduction solution

09 Jul 2024 --- Natural sweetener supplier NutraEx Food has leveraged its patented dry-embedding technology to formulate a new “plug and play” sweetener solution that helps food manufacturers reduce sugar in formulations.

The ingredient — BI Sugar — can optimize sweetness, reduce calories, induce sugar blocking and reduce costs in applications like beverages, bakery, confectionery, dairy and dietary supplements.

"BI-Sugar is different from simple sweetener blends due to our unique, patented embedding process, which bonds high potency sweeteners such as stevia and monk fruit, to a wall material – in this case sucrose. As a result, BI-Sugar delivers reduced sugar content with full sweetness," Harvey Martens, co-founder and chief marketing officer at NutraEx, tells Food Ingredients First.

The ingredient contains L-arabinose, which research has shown to inhibit the enzymes that break down sugar into glucose and fructose, he explains.

“BI-Sugar is not just another sweetener. It is a highly functional solution that will empower food and beverage manufacturers to take their sugar reduction strategies to a new level and set them apart in a highly competitive market."

The potential F&B product applications of BI-Sugar includes cakes and pastries, candy, cookies - biscuits, chocolate, carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks, meal replacement drinks, snacks, cereals, soup mix, pasta, table sugar, canned fruit, wine, sweetened coffee and tea, milk powder, milk tea and beverage mix.

Promoting better health
Research shows that L-arabinose also functions as a “glycemic inhibitor,” which leads to up to 60% reduction of the glucose peak level related to sucrose consumption and up to 60% suppression of the insulin peak level related to sucrose consumption.

The dry-embedding technology bonds L-arabinose to regular sugar to reduce calories from sucrose (Image credit: Rutina-Shutterstock.com).Replacing ordinary sugar with BI-Sugar could help to prevent the blood sugar spike typically associated with sucrose intake. 

In turn, this could result in longer-lasting energy and support the maintenance of a healthy weight, at a time when GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic have increased public discussion and awareness about the biological mechanisms that cause obesity and diabetes.

These properties open up the various applications in F&B formulations. However, Martens also shares some hurdles the team faced in formulating the sugar substitute: "We had to find the right combination and ratio of ingredients for various food applications. L-arabinose works on sugar ingested, so its inhibiting effects are good for food products that contain natural sucrose. But its performance may vary in food applications containing different macronutrients."

Producing “delightful” caramel notes
The Canadian company’s ingredient is versatile and performs the Maillard reaction to produce “delightful caramel notes,” a feature that is limited in other sugar reduction solutions, it claims.  

Additionally, it is made from “all-natural” ingredients that are generally recognized as safe in the US, removing any regulatory barriers to its use in F&B formulations.

Moreover, the company’s unique embedding process drives the ingredients in BI-Sugar to “work together in synergy for perfectly balanced, bright, clean sweetness,” explains Martens.

“With embedding, there is also no separation or settling of different volume density ingredients during storage, transportation or handling by machinery.”

Regulatory landscape
All ingredients in BI-Sugar are already approved in the US, Martens highlights.

"Simply replace sugar with BI-Sugar. NutraEx supports F&B manufacturers with comprehensive formulation projects from idea to launch, working cooperatively with manufacturers’ R&D teams."

The company has "extensive expertise" in the field, having devoted 15 years to sugar reduction. "Past clients are responsible for replacing more than 900,000kg of sugar in their beverage and confectionary products," he details.

Advancing sugar reduction strategies
NutraEx sources L-arabinose from Chinese L-arabinose producer Healtang Biotech, a global under an exclusive distribution agreement.

BI-Sugar can be used to sweeten carbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, energy drinks and more.The sweetener is widely used in the Chinese F&B sector and has gained popularity among consumers due to its ability to mitigate the glycemic impact of sugar.

“L-arabinose has already seen tremendous success in China and we are confident BI-Sugar will be equally popular in the US,” says Fred Bai, general manager at Healtang.

“Just 5% of L-arabinose can lower the glycemic index of regular sugar, highlighting its vast potential as a cost-effective tool in any food company’s sugar reduction strategy.”

Meanwhile, regarding the ingredient's cost efficiency, Martens states: "Cost in use can be the same or lower than sugar. Using BI-Sugar means the product cost will be less subject to fluctuations in sugar prices."

Last year, NutraEx Food formed a distribution agreement with Batory Sweetener Solutions for its low-calorie SugarLike sweetener line.        

Looking ahead
NutraEx is currently conducting an analysis of L-arabinose in the presence of protein and fat, Martens tells us. 

"With these analytical results, we will know more accurately about L-arabinose’s functional effects in different food and beverage matrices. In turn, we can design more precise formulations for these applications."

 In the future, the company  plans to supply BI-Sugar at scale to US F&B manufacturers.

NutraEx will showcase BI-Sugar at the upcoming IFT First Expo in Chicago, US, next week with a blind taste test for sample sugar cookies formulated with the ingredient.

By Insha Naureen