The market
The global market for intense synthetic sweeteners reached $ 2 billion in 2010. Artificial sweeteners copy the taste of natural sugar without calories. The market should grow by more than 8 % per year. The first synthetic sweetener was saccharin, accidentally discovered over 140 years ago. It can be 500 times sweeter than sucrose. Aspartame - 200 times sweeter - was discovered in 1965, then acquired by Monsanto, approved by the FDA in 1980 and reached world sales of more than a billion dollars at the start of the century. Consumers clearly prefer natural alternatives such as stevia, agave and sugar alcohols with synthetic alcohols as a means of appreciating the sweet taste while avoiding an excessive amount of calories and reducing the risk of dental caries.
By 2015, natural sweeteners should match or go beyond global sales of intense synthetic sweeteners. The stevia derivative sweating market manufactured by Cargill, Coca-Cola and Pepsico already represented 14% of the world market in 2010, against only 1% in 2007. Since the Food and Drug Administration of the United States approved Stevia, its Volume of sales increased from $ 21 million in 2008 to 2 billion in 2011. In four years (2004-2008), some 2,000 new Stevia products were launched worldwide. The approval of stevia sweeteners by the EU in April 2010 will lead to two sales of sales growth from 2011.
Innovation
The search for increasingly sweet sweeteners continues. Sucralose, sugar molecule modified by chlorine, produced by Tate & Lyle and marketed under the Splenda brand is 600 times sweeter than sugar. Alitame and neotame are respectively 2,000 and 8,000 softer than sucrose. Unfortunately, although the effects on taste and absorption in the body have been studied in detail, the long -term effects of these sugar spare solutions on the surface tension of gastric acid water in the stomach are little known and require more research. A reduced tension of gastric acids allows non-digested foods and bacteria to pass through the stomach wall in the blood by circulating semi-divided proteins and acidophilic bacteria through natural barriers. The search for natural alternatives continues, including the extract from the Lua Han Guo fruit from southern China, manufactured by Saraya Co. of Osaka, in Japan. The main challenge for all types of alternatives to traditional cane or beet sugar remains the cost and taste. The biggest challenge may be to identify the multiple functions of sugars. Kazuhiko Maruta, working for Hayashibara, a family business in Japan, studied resurrectional fern (Pleopeltis Polypodioides), a plant that has received its name thanks to its ability to recover from death. In drought conditions, the plant dries up to form a brown mass of biomass. He knew that this plant survives thanks to Tréhalose, a kind of sugar that ensures its survival in stress conditions. This sugar is not a question of succuleity, it is rather responsible for retaining humidity and protecting proteins from damage. Tréhalose has an excellent commercial potential as a food additive beyond the sweet taste. It maintains the freshness, stops discoloration, prevents the absorption of humidity and even maintains the shape and taste of frozen food. All of this was well known to scientists. The problem was the cost. However, Kazuhiko discovered how to massage Tréhalosis en masse from starch, simply using enzymes from natural microorganisms. This new process made it possible to reduce the cost of production of a 100 factor and led to an exponential growth in sales which reached around 30,000 tonnes in 2010, sold under the Treha © brand. This innovative sugar has turned into platform technology, with applications beyond the food industry. In addition to his ability to keep food, he has the ability to prevent dehydration, protect the skin and hair, a key success factor for the cosmetic industry. He even keeps the organs fresh for transplantation, thus becoming a critical additive contributing to the success of medical care. One day, it could lead to the manufacture of vaccines without it being necessary to refrigerate them. This multifunctionality of Tréhalose makes it an ideal innovation, generating multiple cash flows going far beyond what we have associated with sugars over the past centuries.
The first cash flow
As the industry was well aware of the potential and Kazuhiko took up the manufacturing challenge, the breakthrough of the offer sparked high demand. The innovative production method of Tréhalose was discovered for the first time in 1994 and, barely 15 years later, it is already found in 20,000 products manufactured by 7,000 companies. Hayashibara, the family business, specialized in starch products, is already a pioneer in hypocaloric sugars (1968) and plastics based on edible starch (1973). Trehalosis propels the company to the avant-garde of biotechnology, demonstrating once again that the innovations that penetrate multiple industries offer unique opportunities to establish new standards. The fact that the product and process are both inspired by a natural system, adds to the wonder of this design.
The opportunity
The vital force of the fern is the basis of a whole range of functional foods. Tests on mice suggest that one day, people who depend on a diet rich in fat and who drink water containing 2.5 % of trushalosis have better health indicators than those that drink any other sugar. Tréhalosis prevents growth of fatty cells. More importantly, it regulates the production and power of insulin by the body. The combination of obesity, high blood pressure and insulin resistance increases the risk of cardiovascular and diabetes disease. With around 150 million people worldwide suffering from a combination of these two debilitating and fatal diseases, this sugar could offer a means of controlling this global threat to health by preparing drinks and functional foods. And one day, we hope that the work of pioneer of Kazuhiko will make it possible to put vaccines on the market without needing refrigeration (see case 17). This would contribute enormously, not only to the agenda of health and human development, but also to reduce our excessive dependence on energy, in particular fossil fuels for a wide range of applications, starting with Vaccines, but also the growing tendency to freeze food as a means of conservation. These multiple advantages make it an ideal innovation to achieve the blue economy.
