Sweetness – the thought of it fills our minds with indulgence and temptation, and for many, dread over the consequences and adverse health impact. Medical research has shown a strong link between excess sugar intake and obesity, as well as a slew of diseases. Artificial sweeteners don’t appear to be much better and their consumption has been linked with adverse effects such as weight gain, metabolic disorders, type 2 diabetes, and alteration of gut microbiota.
Physicians, nutritionists, scientists, and health experts the world over – as well as the UN, and the World Health Organization – have all continued to issue warnings about the negative health effects of sugar, and its social and environmental consequences.
Developer of ‘hyper-sweet designer proteins’, Amai Proteins, is teeing up with Ocean Spray to create a reduced sugar cranberry juice product – without compromising its ‘bold’ taste.
According to the partnership, US-headquartered Ocean Spray will leverage the Israeli start-up’s ‘ground-breaking’ designer protein research to cut sugar by around 40%.
Amai’s proteins are 100% protein, which Ocean Spray says will bring a ‘healthy, tasty sweetening solution’ to its flagship product. In doing so, the US firm will be able to
“offer consumers more ways to incorporate the cranberry into a healthier lifestyle”.
Hyper-sweet, designer protein tech
Amai’s sugar reduction technology is based on a hyper-sweet protein it claims is not only ‘thousands of times’ sweeter than sugar, but is tasty, scalable, and sustainable.