Incredo Sugar, a world-first, ‘clean label’ sugar, made from the same ingredients as regular sugar but infused with the first sugar-based sugar reduction solution, has recently received $30million in funding and will soon be in products on UK shelves.
Editor Rachel Branson talks to CEO of Incredo, Ari Melamud, and asks him when we can expect to see this revolutionary, healthier and greener new ingredient in food and snacks here.
1.What is Incredo® Sugar and why is it better for you than regular sugar?
Incredo® Sugar, our flagship product, is a first-of-its-kind sugar-based sugar reduction solution, which uses a clever process to maximise the efficiency of sugar delivery to the tongue, whilst maintaining the same level of sweetness. It can reduce the presence of conventional sugar by 30%-50% in a wide range of food and snacks. This we can do without compromising the taste or texture of food.
2.How is incredo® Sugar made?
Remarkably, Incredo® Sugar, like its original counterpart, is made from real cane or beet sugar.
We don’t use anything synthetic or artificial in the production process.
Simply put, we use real cane or beet sugar that is structured differently and delivered to the taste receptors more efficiently. Because of this structure, Incredo® Sugar dissolves faster in our saliva and creates a higher concentration of sugar around the sweet taste receptors.
Our brain interprets this higher concentration as more sugar in the food, which results in a delicious sugary experience with substantially less sugar.
3.How did you find out you could do this and why?
A little bit of history about us first.Our company was formed in 2014 by Professor Avraham Baniel, a famous chemist and professor here in Israel. He was 95 when he invented the technology behind Incredo® Sugar. His son, Eran Baniel, founded the company, based on his father’s idea. Eran ran the company up until July 2021, when I joined as CEO.
As we know, there are issues associated with using existing sweeteners. In fact, the World Health Organization this month released a new guideline on non-sugar sweeteners, which recommended against their use for weight loss, but also suggested that there may be potential undesirable effects from long-term use of sweeteners. These include an increased risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and mortality in adults*.
In addition, they often have a chalky aftertaste or lingering sweetness, due to a commonly used bulking solution called erythritol – a type of carbohydrate called a ‘sugar alcohol’ that people use as a sugar substitute.
Incredo® Sugar provides a natural alternative to sweeteners by relying on our sugar reduction solution to deliver real cane sugar to your tongue’s sweet taste receptors in a more efficient manner, resulting in the same level of sweetness with less sugar.
4. Cadbury has just announced it’s launching what’s been called a ‘diet chocolate’, which contains 75% less sugar, and the World Health Organisation has advised against using non-sugar sweeteners to help manage weight. Do you think low-sugar sugars are the way forward?
Indeed, we do. We are on a mission to make the world a healthier place. With the introduction of Incredo® Sugar, we can empower both delicious taste and improved nutrition, all while helping to curb the overconsumption of sugar. In doing so, we are also responding to consumer demand and market trends.
5.Is Incredo better for the environment than regular sugar?
As with all food manufacture, sugar production has an environmental footprint. Sugar is the most produced crop in the world and it is a high contributor to CO2 emissions. Since Incredo® Sugar reduces the amount of sugar in foods, it is also more sustainable because it can be produced, stored, transported and manufactured in significantly smaller quantities
6.If it is a clean label product, does that mean it only contains natural ingredients?
es, Incredo® Sugar on its own is 100% natural and free of artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. It has no aftertaste and shows on the product’s ingredient label as sugar. We might want to add it is Non GMO
7.Why do you feel it’s important to manufacture ‘healthier’ ingredients?
It’s a well-known fact that the overconsumption of sugar causes many illnesses — including obesity and diabetes. The Health Survey for England 2021 estimates that over a quarter of adults in England are obese and a further 37.9% are overweight**.
While it’s important to say that Incredo® Sugar is not sugar-free, it can represent a 30% – 50% reduction in sugar if food applications and is gluten free, vegan-friendly and provides the same indulgence with less actual sugar.
Here is the clever bit: Incredo Sugar is actual sugar and using it you canreduce sugar in the final recipe and bulking back up with ingredients such as fibres or proteins, which will make the product more healthy. So, Incredo Sugar itself is not higher in protein or fibre, but the final product could be.
Using Incredo® Sugar allows food manufacturers to create products with up to 50% less sugar, effectively reducing the consumption of sugar in snacks and treats, whilst maintaining the sweetness, taste and texture that we know and love.
8.You recently received $30m in funding. What will that money enable you to do?
Incredo’s latest round of funding comes on the heels of a successful 2022 – a year when we partnered with Blommer Chocolate Company in America, where you’ll already find Incredo® Sugar in some products. This latest round of funding will enable us to grow our presence in the US, UK, Europe and into new territories/geographies
9.You have an agreement with well-known company Ferrero. Does that mean they will be launching new products containing Incredo?
Our joint development agreement with Ferrero is making great progress so far.
10.Incredo is already quite widely used in America. When can we expect to see new products in the UK?
That’s right, we have a partnership with Blommer Chocolate Company in the US, where you’ll find several products available which contain our revolutionary ingredient. We already have projects in development in the UK market and we hope to be able to announce more news later in the year.
11.How else can it be used, other than in chocolate and confectionery?
Incredo® Sugar is a highly versatile product and can be used in baked goods, such as cookies cakes and nutritional bars, spreads, fillings, chocolates well as sugar confectionary such as gummies. The only way it can’t be used is in drinks (or in applications with high water activity)
12.Are there any plans to sell Incredo in UK supermarkets so people can use it at home?
Not at this stage. Our focus is on providing Incredo Sugar as an ingredient and there are no plans to sell the loose product directly to the public.
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