Ingredion leads investment round to slash sugar in collaboration with Better Juice

18 Jan 2024 --- Food-tech start-up Better Juice is collaborating with Ingredion in a new deal to offer sugar reduction solutions. Ingredion Ventures, Ingredion’s venture investment arm, will lead a series A funding round for Better Juice, which is slated to fast-track penetration of its breakthrough sugar reduction solution into the US juice market.

Better Juice’s innovative sugar reduction technology removes simple sugars in juice-based beverages, concentrates and other natural sugar-containing liquids. 

The company developed an enzymatic technology, which converts sugars into non-digestible compounds, such as dietary fibers and non-digestible sugars while maintaining the natural profile of vitamins, minerals and organic acids in the final product.

Speaking to Food Ingredients First, Gali Yarom, co-founder and co-CEO of Better Juice, says the US market has a higher perception of consumer usage for sugar reduction. 

“The diabetic rate is also high, and we progress there with the regulation status. All together, give the vector for the first penetration,” she explains. 

While Better Juice has conducted preliminary trials with European companies, the concentrated commercial efforts on product placement are planned for 2025, coinciding with the progression of regulatory steps in the region.

“We reduce sugars from any natural source, it is a completely different technology than replacing sugar with sweetener and changing recipe. It gives a whole solution and 360 Angle view to tackle the sugar reduction in the market,” Yarom notes. 

She believes the new collaboration will “give us the effort to spread our technology quickly and effectively worldwide.”

“Further,” Yarom states, “this collaboration presents a mutually beneficial opportunity for both companies. For Ingredion, it offers the chance to deliver a holistic sugar reduction solution to its customers globally while benefiting Better Juice by expanding the reach of its non-GMO technology through Ingredion’s corporate network. It’s a win-win situation that leverages each company’s strengths for a broader market impact.”

“Moreover, the partnership dovetails perfectly with the Better Juice strategy to penetrate the North American market. Ingredion was impressed by our non-GMO technology and its uses in various applications. This move will open doors to F&B companies seeking sugar-reduction solutions for their products.”

“The Better Juice technology adds a completely new dimension to our portfolio of sugar reduction solutions for food and beverage brands on a mission to meet increased consumer demand for less sugar,” says Nate Yates, Sugar Reduction business leader at Ingredion. 

“This technology also provides manufacturers with more options to successfully reduce sugar without compromising on great taste or nutrition.”

Clean label conversion
The environmentally friendly clean label conversion process applies proprietary beads of non-GMO microorganisms that produce enzymes. 

These enzymes convert the juice’s composition of fruit sugars, including sucrose, glucose, and fructose, into better-for-you prebiotic fibers and other non-digestible molecules. This enables sugar reduction by 30% to 80%.

“This alliance will accelerate our go-to-market journey,” explains Eran Blachinsky, co-founder and co-CEO of Better Juice. “Ingredion’s capital support will allow us to extend the technology to other liquids with natural sources of sugar, such as milk, beer and wine.” 

This achievement follows Better Juice’s well-established partnership with GEA Group, one of the largest suppliers of food processing technology.

Primed for commercialization
Better Juice’s solution has successfully advanced to commercial scale in the US. 

Better Juice reduces all types of sugars from a broad range of fruit products.In recent years, it demonstrated its full proof of concept in collaboration with juice manufacturers in the US and Asia. These companies are now poised to progress to the next stage of commercialization. 

Better Juice is now fully prepped for market entry, with a capacity to process 250 million liters of sugar-reduced juice annually.

Since 2022, the GEA Better Juice Sugar Converter Skid has been included in GEA’s test center in Ahaus, Germany. Better Juice collaborates with GEA to manufacture the bioreactor, and together, they install the technology in customers’ facilities. 

“Better Juice has achieved important milestones in the past two years and has positioned itself as the leading company for reducing simple sugars from natural sources,” notes Amir Zaidman, VP of The Kitchen Hub. “The timing is perfect for serving the rapidly expanding trend of consumers striving to cut down on simple sugars in their diet.”

By Elizabeth Green