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Companies and WUR experts work on fibre-rich sugar replacers from plant-based side streams in EXTREAMS project
Sugar is added in large quantities in a wide variety of food products, raising significant health concerns. The development of natural sugar replacers could conceivably generate important social impacts, in the field of sustainability and healthy food products. Wageningen Research, Royal Cosun, Loacker, Grupo Bimbo, Unigrà, Innocent Drinks, Roquette and SWT Stevia have joined forces in a public-private cooperation initiative, to achieve breakthrough innovations in valorising plant-based side streams as natural, clean-label sugar replacers in food applications, that are accepted by consumers.
The EXTREAMS project will enable the food industry to:
- maintain consumer preferences and meet their expectations regarding their favoured products, while these products have substantially reduced sugar content;
- provide new product offerings which will fulfil consumer demands (such as clean label, sustainability and health);
- improve sustainability by making use of agri-food side streams as starting materials to produce sugar replacers;
- apply low-energy and cost-effective biorefinery processes.
The EXTREAMS project is co-financed by the Top Sector Agri & Food, registered under number: TKI- LWV20.107. The project runs from 31 March 2021 to 31 March 2025.
Project approach
Sugars are not only used as sweeteners but are responsible for many properties in food and therefore they cannot usually be replaced by a single ingredient. Removing or replacing sugar will alter the characteristics (taste, texture, appearance) of a food product. EXTREAMS will valorise plant-based side-streams (polysaccharides-rich) suitable for replacing texturising and taste functions of sugar by involving all relevant stakeholders in the food production chain. Novel sugar replacers will be developed through connecting structure with functionality via minimal processing biorefinery. Unique scientific know-how on physical and chemical properties of sugars and their effects on the perception of sweetness will be used for these purposes and further developed.
Effective solutions to sugar reduction
The unique knowledge on sugar functionality has already enabled WUR to develop a digital tool for sugar replacement based on commercial ingredients. The underlying physical-chemical principles will be now extended to obtain functional fractions from naturally occurring mixtures of bulking and sweetening ingredients from plants.