DouxMatok and Hi-Food have teamed up to deliver a nutrition solution that allows food manufacturers to address sugar reduction without compromising on taste, texture, sweetness or nutrition. 

DouxMatok’s sugar-based solution, Incredo Sugar, will join Hi-Food’s semi-solid, natural fiber Meltec.

Incredo Sugar, which launched last year and is now commercially available in the U.S., enables up to 50 percent sugar reduction in food products. The ingredient allows room for nutritional ingredients such as fibers and plant-based proteins, creating a natural fit for a joint effort with Hi-Food’s Meltec, an semi-solid ingredient similar to syrup that is based on vegetable fibers. In addition to enriched fiber content, Meltec improves structural properties in food products, is neutral in taste and does not alter odors or colors.

“In partnership with Hi-Food, we’ll be able to deliver more than just a specialty ingredient for great-tasting sugar reduction solutions to food brands,” said DouxMatok Chief Technology Officer David Tsivion. “We can provide a full nutritional platform that delivers the scalability and functionality needed for food developers and food production, and the sweetness and mouthfeel that consumers have come to expect.”

The collaborative effort between DouxMatok and Hi-Food addresses one of the most common challenges of existing solutions on the market — maintaining sweetness and other sugar functionalities while avoiding the aftertastes associated with sugar substitute bulking solutions. Research and application development teams at both companies have been working together for over a year to test Incredo Sugar and Meltec in combination as pillars to full nutritional solutions in various applications.

“We’re really impressed with the collaborative work of our team and our partners at DouxMatok, and we’re confident in the ability of these combined ingredients to provide a solution that the market is lacking,” said Emanuele Pizzigalli, R&D officer and co-founder at Hi-Food. “Sugar reduction is a key priority for food manufacturers across the globe, and we’re committed to helping them address this challenge through the use of our fibers with Incredo Sugar.”

The companies have developed product prototypes across a range of applications, including cakes, cookies, chocolate, candy, protein bars, energy bars, snacks, and more. The combination of these ingredients also provides an added sustainability value for the food industry as a whole, helping to reduce the environmental impact of overconsumption of sugar, and at the same time exploiting the use of high-quality raw materials from well controlled legumes and cereals supply chains. 

Products utilizing DouxMatok and Hi-Food’s full nutritional solution are expected to launch in early 2022.