It's hard to be sweet. While sugar has been linked to many diseases, artificial sweetenersoften have their own health risks.
Sweet proteins are another alternative. Fruits, eggs, and some plants contain small amounts of sweet proteins. They can replace sugar or artificial sweeteners when upgraded.
According to Ilan Samuel, CEO of Israeli custom protein maker Amai Proteins, there are about 200 sweet proteins. Seven of them are “hypersweet,” meaning they are 700 to 3,000 times sweeter than sugar by weight.
Which sweet proteins are approved by regulatory authorities?
Sweet proteins may still be under research, but they are more than just a concept. Several of them have been used in foods and beverages.
Thaumatin is a sweet protein that has been on the market for a very long time. Thaumatin is approved by the FDA, EU, Switzerland, and Israel, but, Samish says, its high price encourages people to use it in small amounts. Brazzein is a sweet protein that has recently been approved by several countries, including the United States. However, it is not yet available on the market.
What Makes Sweet Protein Different from Other Sweeteners
The way the body reacts to sweet proteins, as well as other natural or artificial sweeteners, is what makes them different.
Samish says other sweeteners “remain sweeteners even after you swallow them.” They can act as sweeteners in the body. This includes activating the sweet receptors on the lining of our digestive tract and altering the microbiome. The World Health Organization WarnedSugar-free sweeteners are not recommended for weight loss or preventing noncommunicable diseases.
Samish explained that the sweet protein is made up of only twenty amino acids, nine of which the body cannot produce and must come from diet.
Why do proteins become sweet?
Why do some proteins taste sweet? Samish from Amai Proteins told us that the sweetness of some proteins is most likely an unwanted side effect. Monosaccharides are made up of six hydroxyls, a chemical group containing an oxygen and hydrogen atom. (Sucrose is classified as a disaccharide.) Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins, and some amino acids also contain hydroxyls.
Samish, however, told us that this is not true when it comes to “super sweet” proteins. In my humble opinion and based on a lot of evidence, I believe that super sweet proteins are the seduction of plants.
Six of the seven sugar proteins can be found in plants growing along the equatorial belt – which stretches from China to West Africa. There is plenty of food and water (fertilizer) in the deep jungle. The word “deep” implies a shady environment, so plants fear darkness descending on the jungle. They must attract animals to eat their fruits (…and seeds) in order to propagate.
He suggested that they were super sweet because they needed to attract animals to eat them. They must be sweeter than the sugar found in many fruits, such as the apple that was the original lure of the Garden of Eden.
It is present only in small quantities because it was developed to provide sweetness and not for other purposes. Denatured at low temperatures (it loses its sweetness and structure), it is unsuitable for certain food and beverage uses.
What is the production process of sugar proteins?
In nature, sugar proteins are present in extremely small quantities. Samish points out that they are also found in exotic fruits, which cannot be grown on the farm. So they have to be created outside the natural context.
Amai Proteins designs proteins based on sweet proteins and designed to survive extreme conditions. The proteins are produced through precision fermentation and then evaluated for stability, sensory characteristics and synergies between other food and beverage ingredients.
Samish explains that a protein is a chain of twenty beads, called amino acids. Each protein would be a unique necklace in terms of the use of amino acids and the length of each.
Sweet proteins, such as thaumatin, can be extracted from fruits using extraction techniques. The Katemfe fruit is harvested in West Africa. "The Katemfe fruit is harvested in West Africa."
What are the obstacles to mass production of goods?
Samish explained that it is difficult to associate these proteins with food and beverage products. They offer many benefits to consumers, but they still do not fulfill certain functions.
Sweet proteins, for example, do not have the same properties as sugar such as browning, texture and volume. These properties are essential in certain markets and can only be achieved by using other ingredients.
Sugar-Out Prote-In Project
Amai Proteins recently participated in the Sugar-Out Prote-In project. Amai Proteins collaborated with Danone, PepsiCo and Technion (Israel Institute of Technology) to develop sweetened proteins. This project focused on scaling up, formulating and evaluating consumer perceptions for DM09, a super sweet protein from Designer Monellin.
The Technion developed a formulation based on food ingredients that enhances the sweet sensory sensation, making the protein more like sugar. This has allowed a higher percentage of sugar replacement in beverages than simply using the protein, according to FoodNavigator.
Different food matrices have different levels of sweetness in the sugar proteins, which are on average three thousand times sweeter than sugar.
Samish explained to us that the sensory profile can be affected by very high sugar reduction levels. Samish told us that the sensory profile can be imperfect at very high sugar reduction levels.
Amai’s sweet protein, for example, has its own production hurdles. Amai’s proteins, for example, don’t work as well at high temperatures. This is important in industries like baking.
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