Ashdod-based Better Juice Ltd., a foodtech startup developing technology to reduce all types of sugars in orange juice, and Citrosuco S.A, Brazil, one of the largest orange juice producers worldwide, are teaming up. The new collaboration aims to set up a pilot plant to reduce sugars in orange juice. Citrosuco is providing some of the funding plus technical and operational expertise.
Fruit juices contain vitamins, minerals, and many other beneficial nutrients, but this natural drink comes with three types of sugars. Better Juice's enzymatic technology naturally transforms all types of fruit sugars into prebiotic and other non-digestible fibers and sugars.
"Our device use non-GMO microorganisms to convert the sugars, and provides orange juice manufactures a ready opportunity to meet the trends and claims for reduced sugars, all while keeping the juicy flavor of the beverage," says Eran Blachinsky, PhD, founder and CEO of Better Juice. "Our proprietary technology can be tuned to reduce between 30% and 80% of all the sugars in orange juice, making it easy conform to the minimum 25% reduction required by the FDA, as well as the 30% reduction required by the EFSA for allowable claims of 'reduced sugar' in food and beverage products."
"We have been seeking an orange juice sugar reduction technology for some time," says Alex Marie Schuermans, Product Development and Applications General Manager of Citrosuco. "Better Juice's solution holds a lot of promise and we are confident that by combining their technology with our know-how, we can accelerate production of the first sugar-reduced orange juice."
Better Juice won the "Most Innovative Technology" award at the 2018 Startup Innovation Challenge at Health Ingredients Europe in Frankfurt for its sugar reduction technology, which it developed in conjunction with The Hebrew University in Rehovot, Israel, and The Kitchen Hub incubator, Ashdod, Israel. The company is supported by The Kitchen Hub - Strauss Group Ltd.'s (TASE:STRS) foodtech incubator.
Published by Globes, Israel business news - en.globes.co.il - on August 8, 2019
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