Israel based food-tech startup Better Juice, Ltd., announced the scaling up of its innovative technology to reduce all types of sugars in orange juice. The startup is installing a semi-industrial pilot plant that will feature the company’s sugar reduction process in a continuous flow technology that ensures a consistent, safe, and effective enzymatic process. It is able to reduce up to 80% of simple sugar in orange juice at a rate of up to 50 liters/hour.
Fruit juices contain vitamins, minerals, and many other beneficial nutrients, but this natural drink comes with three types of sugars. Better Juice’s game-changing enzymatic technology, using non-GMO microorganisms, naturally transforms all types of fruit sugars into prebiotic and other non-digestible fibers and sugars. The technology can be tuned to reduce between 30% to 80% of all the sugars in orange juice, making it easy conform for allowable claims of ‘reduced sugar’ in food and beverage products..
“We’ve signed collaboration agreements with several global juice producers so far. Our goal is to attain full industrial scale and supply to the market within a year. Soon, you will be able to see natural juice beverages with more favorable Nutri-Scores.”
Eran Blachinsky, PhD, Founder and CEO of Better Juice.
Nutri-Score is a new food label system that converts the nutritional value of products into a clear letter and color code on the packaging in Europe. Juice and beverage manufacturers are increasingly aware of the need to reduce the sugar levels in their products before new labeling initiative goes into action. By using Better Juice technology, this will be easy to achieve.
One of the major hurdles in continuous flow reduction of sugars in natural juices is keeping the process contamination-free even through large-scale production, without damaging the enzymatic activity. Better Juice developed a new device crafted from stainless steel, with aseptic fittings and welding, together with a unique process that guarantees a continuous, safe flow for its enzymatic sugar-reduction process for weeks at a time without interrupting the sterilization stage.
“The scale-up pilot plant is designed for smooth implementation into the standard procedures deployed by the juice industry. This is a key factor for beverage manufacturers seeking to affordably reduce sugars naturally while maintaining the juice quality and clean label attributes — a real game changer for the juice industry.”
Gali Yarom, Partner, COO, and VP of Business Development for Better Juice.
Better Juice, Ltd., was founded in December, 2017, by a team of food professionals, including a biochemist and microbiologist of The Hebrew University in Jerusalem with extensive experience in product development. The company received its seed investment and is supported by The Kitchen Hub – Strauss Group’s food-tech incubator.
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