Source: Wageningen University & Research
Royal Cosun is proudly taking part in project EXTREAMS. The research project focuses on developing fibre-rich sugar replacers from side-streams which are accepted by consumers: valorising natural occurring mixtures of bulking and sweetening ingredients from plants.
Background
For a more sustainable and healthy daily diet, sugar reduction is one of the important targets. Sugars are used in a wide variety of food products and are found in many product categories. Apart from the sweet indulgence, often sugar covers other functions in parallel such as texture and appearance. Due to rising health concerns about high sugar intake, repsonible leaders in the food industry are engaged to come up with innovative ways to reduce the amount of added sugars in consumers’ products. Still remaining indulgence and functionality at the same time.
Sugars are responsible for many properties of food and therefore cannot be easily replaced by a single ingredient. Removing or replacing sugar will alter the characteristics of a food product. Via a reverse engineering approach, it is possible to develop natural sugar alternatives to replace the functionalities of sugar towards texturizing/bulking and sweetening, which can allow the industry to further reduce the sugar content of their offerings to the consumer.
On the other hand, food manufacturing is comprised of several complex processes which generate vast amounts of side streams. Usually strategies for dealing with these materials are undeveloped and result in low economic value. Companies seek improved total use of crops and circularity for an improved footprint and revenuestream.The development of novel sugar replacers from plant-based side-streams can generate social impact in the field of sustainability of (healthy) food and combats food waste, allowing healthier product offerings to consumers.