Kraft Heinz, Sweegen, etc. entered the game. Will this sweetener be a new star in the sugar substitute industry?

With the taste closer to sucrose and the properties of natural zero-calorie, erythritol, allulose and various functional sugars have been popular all over the world in recent years, becoming the "best sugar substitute" in the minds of consumers. However, although these rare sugars can provide similar functions to sucrose, their sweetness is generally only about 40%-70% of sucrose, so they cannot completely replace sucrose. It is still necessary to add high sweeteners to increase the sweetness.

Traditional zero-calorie high-power sweeteners such as ASPARTAME, acesulfame K, sucralose, and steviol glycosides can provide sufficient "sweetness", but they will all show undesirable odors such as metallic taste and bitterness to varying degrees, and The safety of synthetic sweeteners such as aspartame is also questionable. Therefore, the development of better high-intensity sweeteners has become a new issue in the sugar substitute industry. In recent years, some companies have turned their attention to sweet protein. This kind of sweetener with high sweetness, pure taste, pure natural, and no side effects is expected to become the future of the high-power sweetener industry.

Sweet protein-a new high-power natural sweetener

As early as 1968, researchers isolated from the mysterious fruit fruit a protein that can turn the sourness into sweetness-kiwi protein. This kind of protein itself has no sweet taste, but it can change people's taste after encountering acidic substances and produce a sweet taste similar to sucrose. Later, scientists discovered a variety of sweet proteins, which can be roughly divided into three categories. One type has a sweet taste, including Brazzein, Thaumatin, Monellin, Mabinlin, Pentadin, etc.; It has the function of taste regulation, which can make other tastes (such as sour taste) into sweet taste, including Miraculin and Neoculin; the other has both characteristics, including curculin.

Compared with traditional sugar substitutes, sweet protein has many unique advantages. First of all, it is a protein, which can be converted into Amino Acids and can be completely absorbed and metabolized by the body without any safety concerns. It contains no calories and does not cause blood sugar reactions. No caries are produced; secondly, the sweetness of the sweet protein is extremely high, reaching 3000 times that of sugar; in addition, the sweet protein has no bad bitterness and aftertaste, which can enhance the flavor of the product. However, because of the high cost of pure plant extraction of sweet protein and poor stability, it has not been effectively developed for a long time. Only thaumatin is used more in food. With the advancement of technology, through yeast and plant transgene expression, it is possible to produce sweet proteins on a large scale and avoid instability and other shortcomings. This has also become a new direction of research by foreign sweetener companies in recent years.

The most promising sweet protein-Brazilian sweet protein

Among the many sweet proteins, brazzein is considered the most promising because it tastes like sugar, has no peculiar smell, and can maintain its properties in a wide temperature range and different pH values. structure. Brazzein is isolated from the fruit of the tropical plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon in West Africa. The sweetness is 2000 times that of sucrose of equal quality. Compared with other sweet proteins, Brazzein has the smallest molecular weight and the best water solubility, and its aqueous solution remains sweet after 4 hours of heat treatment at 80°C, and has good thermal stability and pH stability.

The most successful commercialized sweet protein-somatin

Thaumatin is isolated from a perennial shrub of the bamboo scorpion family in the tropical rain forests of West Africa. Its sweetness is about 3000 times that of sucrose, and it can be denatured by heating and lose its sweetness. Among the various sweet proteins, the one that has been studied most and commercialized the most is thaumatin. It has a sweet and refreshing taste, no bad aftertaste or bitterness, and has the effect of enhancing product flavor and masking bad taste, and the sweetness is in In the pH range of 2-10, heating below 100°C (or ultra-high temperature instantaneous sterilization above 100°C) has stable performance.

Somatan is particularly suitable for being added to beverages for fruity beverages. Somatan can coordinate the ratio of sweetness to sour, make the overall flavor more harmonious, and mask the undesirable flavor of steviol glycosides and other sweeteners to make the sweetness more pure; Used in vegetable protein beverages, it can better inhibit bitterness, improve unpleasant odors, and make the flavor of vegetable protein beverages more pure; used in MILK-containing beverages, thaumatin can act on the tongue and back of the throat and other fat-sensing areas to stimulate People’s perception of the sixth taste—fat flavor allows low-fat milk beverages to burst out with a richer milky flavor, enhance the fullness of low-fat milk-containing beverages, and achieve a richer taste.

A lot of research and development of sweet protein-kiwi protein

Kifruit protein is the first sweet protein to be discovered. It has no sweet taste. After encountering acidic substances, it can change the human taste and produce a sweetness similar to sucrose; for different acids, the sweetness produced is different. Kifruit meringue is relatively stable below 100°C and within the pH range of 3-12.

American food technology company Joywell Foods received a US$6.9 million Series A financing led by Evolv Ventures, a venture capital fund established by Kraft Heinz, last year. Joywell Foods uses the latest bio-fermentation technology to realize low-cost commercial production of kiwi protein. At present, the company has successfully applied mystery fruit protein in candy, pudding, yogurt and cereals.