Honey, I shrunk the sugar in your sweets

AN ISRAELI company has found a way to cut the sugar content of confectionary without the need for artificial sweeteners — and crucially, without changing the flavour.

DouxMatok has announced a partnership with Südzucker, Europe’s largest sugar producer, to introduce its product to the European market, according to The Times.

Eran Baniel, the Israeli firm’s chief executive, said its aim was to “enable consumers to enjoy the exact same tastes they know and love, with a better and healthier nutritional profile”.

DouxMatok, which launched in 2014, has found a way to increase the ability of sugar to reach the tongue’s taste receptors.

Most sugar in cakes or biscuits is not picked up by the taste buds, meaning products need to contain much larger amounts to ensure it does.

The firm, which is based in Petach Tikvah, has developed a technique which involves attaching sugar molecules to minute particles of silica, mimicking the technique pharmaceutical companies use to ensure the correct medicinal dose reaches the appropriate parts of the body. It has managed to achieve similar results with salt.

DouxMatok says its technology enables a reduction of over 30 per cent while fully retaining the same sugar or salt “experience”. In other words, the “same taste that consumers are looking for, with lower caloric value, no aftertastes, similar mouthfeel, same colour and texture”.

It is marketing its product as useful for biscuits, cakes, chocolates, confectionary, spreads, biscuits and cereals.

Mr Baniel described the deal with Südzucker as “a vote of confidence by the best of the sugar industry in Europe in launching the first sugar-based targeted delivery technology”.

They can enjoy the same tastes they know and love’