ASR Group introduces cost-effective tagatose to market
11 Aug 2023 | ASR Group
The world’s largest sugar refiner ASR Group has brought the once-cost-prohibitive rare sugar tagatose to market through a collaboration with Bonumose. The new technology uses starch and enzymes to yield the ingredient, which is 90% as sweet as sugar. Darshan Purohit, technical services manager at the company, explains how exactly tagatose can improve the taste and health of sugar-reduced foods.
This is Missy Green with Food Ingredients First here at IFT 2023.
I'm here with Darshan Purrowit, who's the technical services manager at ASR Group.
So Darshan, tell us what is tagatose and what makes it stand out from other sweeteners.
Tagatose is a rare sugar which occurs in nature.
It's 90% as sweet as sugar.
It does not have any aftertaste, so that's how it's different than other sweeteners.
A lot of high potency sweeteners, some sugar alcohol, some metallic taste, some bitter taste, but gatos does not have any of that.
Also, compared to some sugar alcohols which are 60 to 70.
Sweet.
Tegatose is 90% as sweet as sugar.
Is this a new ingredient?
The ingredient itself is not new.
However the technology is new.
This product Tegatos was commercialized in early 2000, but at that time, the production costs were very high.
So the new technology which the company we are partnered with Bonnymos has is they use plant-based starches and enzymatically convert it to tegatos, and that has Brought down the cost significantly.
So that's what we are showcasing.
It's like a product which can be commercialized at a reasonable cost.
And does it work synergistically with any sort of other sweeteners?
It typically helps with flavor enhancement, like if you are using certain high potency sweeteners, if you want to cut down the linger, enhance the flavor.
So one of the products we are showcasing here is an iced tea sweetened with tagatos and rabe.
In this, it's functioning as a flavor modifier rather than a sweetener because we are using it less than one person, so it's not going to bring too much sweetness, but it's able to cut down on linger, help bring the sweetness, more rounded sweetness, so that's the function here.
The other prototype we are showcasing is a granola bar and a caramel drizzle on top.
This is all sweetened with tagatos.
There is no high potency sweetener, no sugar alcohol.
It's all tagatos, both in the granola bar and the caramel.
And so how is it listed on the ingredients label?
On the ingredients statement it's listed as Tegatos.
OK.
And do you think consumers will recognize this ingredient?
It's a fairly new ingredient, so there would be some education or like market awareness once people start using it.
The advantage of using it though is.
Like you can do 1 to 1 substitution pretty easily.
Like if you are doing a retail packet or something like that, it's again, like, right now we are just focused on like B2B, but eventually if it comes to retail, as I said, it's only 90% sweet as, it's 90% sweet as sugar.
So maybe if you do 1, it's 21, you might feel like it's a little less sweet, but it, it won't be like, I would say very different than sugar.
So that's the advantage of using Tegatos.
Are there any other benefits like?
Yes, so this is a unique sugar where your body, like when you consume sugar, typically your glucose level goes up, while when you consume tattos, your glucose level, blood glucose level does not change, so it's diabetic friendly diets that can be used.
It's keto certified as for the same reason.
It's a lower GI of, 3.
Also, the way it is processed in the body, metabolized in the body is it passes through the small intestine, most of it as is, and when it reaches the colon, it gets fermented by good bacteria, probiotic bacteria, and they produce short chain fatty acids which are helpful to host on various intestinal health or other benefits they have.
So it's a prebiotic.
It's a food for probiotic bacteria, so it's a prebiotic and also like sugars, you might have heard it's pretty common.
You get cavities, tooth decay if you consume a lot of regular sugars, while Tegatose is not fermented by oral bacteria, so it's non-kogenic, and that claim is actually FDA approved.
So it's a very different sugar.
You can see it has the sweetness of sugar.
Functionality is also the same.
It has mallard browning.
The product does brown when it's baked.
It also has freezing point depression, which is important.
It adds bulk back with hypotensive sweeteners, you cannot add bulk bag.
You need something else.
So here it has sweetness plus other functionality, but it does not have those negative health consequences which sugar has.
So what markets is it available?
So it's right now it's available in the US, also in certain Latin American countries, so it's approved as a grass status in the US.
We are also approved in Chile, Peru, so there are a couple of countries there which, it has been approved, but yeah, right now our focus is US.
OK, thank you very much.
Thank you.
