FiE 2024: Resugar balances taste and health with heightened sweetness perception

Israel-based Resugar has introduced a sugar-based approach to sugar reduction, claiming that its solution can remove up to 70% of sugar in applications without impacting the taste or functionality of the final product.

On the show floor of Food Ingredients Europe (FiE), which took place November 19–21 in Frankfurt, Germany, Nutrition Insight spoke with Michael Zviely, PhD, senior vice president for R&D at Resugar, about how the company is leading the charge in lower-sugar solutions over no-sugar products. 

“We believe sugar is essential — for the functionality and the taste of food and beverages. We also need it from a physiological point of view. But due to today’s health problems, like obesity and diabetes, we believe the best way to use sugar is to lower the amount we consume, not to eliminate it.”

How does it work?

Although the composition of Resugar’s solution can vary depending on the application, the product is a 1:1 replacement for conventional sugar. Its standard format is 30% sugar, 65% dietary fiber and 5% natural flavor.

The company’s trade secret is the natural flavor component, which the founders perfected after two years of R&D and hundreds of trials.

At FiE, Resugar showcased a brownie that contained half the sugar of the normal treat with no off-notes or other loss in sensory qualities. 

“When we eat or drink something that contains sugar, the vast majority goes directly into our GI tract, and we don’t feel it on our tongue. It’s a waste of taste,” explains Zviely. 

“What we are doing is using raw materials that enlarge the receptors on our tongues, enabling us to feel much more of the sugar that we introduce into our body. That means we need less of it.”

Michael Zviely, PhD, senior vice president for R&D at Resugar.For example, if someone consumes 10 g of sugar, and 9.9 g goes straight into their GI tract, that person has tasted only 0.1 g of sugar, suggests Zviely. With our natural flavor — which has no inherent sweetness of its own — that person will taste 0.3 g of sugar. The sweetness is tripled, and that is the main idea behind it. 

The product has been successful across product categories, such as brownies, cakes, cookies and ice cream.

“In Europe, it is currently used in some yogurts. But it was first launched in Israel in Nestlé’s 99-calorie ice cream, which won the consumer prize for the best frozen dessert in 2023. Notice it is not positioned as a diet ice cream but as a small treat. That is important for consumers,” declares Zviely.

Health considerations 

Governments are putting increased pressure on the F&B industry to decrease sugar content to reduce the burden of diseases like type 2 diabetes. But Zviely argues that solutions with high-intensity sweeteners are also causes for concern, even as regulatory bodies continue to ensure they are safe.

Nestlé’s 99 uses Resugar's ingredient combination to sweeten its 99-calorie ice cream in Israel.“In recent years, some scientific literature has suggested that both artificial and natural sweeteners can cause health issues. This is one of the main reasons clients come to us. They want to avoid the use of high-intensity sweeteners.” 

He points out that customers are especially keen to avoid erythritol and other polyols because of their health impact. Erythritol was recently reevaluated by EFSA last year as part of an ongoing measure to reassess the safety of food additives approved before 20 January 2009.

The European Commission asked EFSA to consider exempting erythritol from the laxative warning label requirement for foods with more than 10% added polyols as established by Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011. But after its assessment, EFSA was not able to grant the exception and suggested that consumption be limited due the presence of lead found in samples.

Zviely adds that by using Resugar’s solution, consumers can avoid the potential ill effects of sweeteners and enjoy additional prebiotic benefits from dietary fiber. Depending on the application, this can come in the form of natural inulin from chicory fiber, FOS (fructooligosaccharides) or soluble corn fiber. 

Sugar is behind the delicious browning in baked goods like cookies.Taste is king

Perhaps the most important consideration that F&B brands should make is the sheer irreplaceability of sugar in terms of its functional properties and taste.

“Sugar is responsible for the beautiful browning reaction in cakes and cookies that makes them so appealing. It also lowers the freezing point of water below 0 degrees, which enables ice cream’s creamy texture. If you don’t lower the freezing point, the product will crystalize, like ice. So, this is an extremely important property of sugar. Not to mention it contributes to mouthfeel and shelf life.”

Zviely further argues that its taste is simply irreplaceable. “For evolutionary reasons, we are used to the sweetness profile of sugar. When we taste a sweetener, we immediately detect it and don’t like it. We are hard-wired for sugar. It is part of what makes us human.”