Food authority issues warning over low cal sweetener
sweetener tagatose, just launched last month, saying that it could
harm consumers who are intolerant to the fruit sugar fructose,
writes Lindsey Partos.
Recently approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), the tooth-friendly sugar replacer manufactured and commercialised the world over by milk-based ingredients supplier Arla Food Ingredients, only entered the Australian and New Zealand markets in May. Arla farmed out the rights for distribution for the two countries to fellow ingredients firm Nutrinova.
"It is safe for the general population but, because tagatose is metabolised in the same way as fructose, FSANZ considers that foods containing tagatose would not be suitable for people who are fructose intolerant," warned FSANZ's chief medical adviser, Dr Bob Boyd yesterday.
Fructose is a naturally-occuring fruit sugar and about one in 20,000 people in Europe may have fructose intolerance where they have an absence of enzymes in the body which digest the fructose, used as a sweetener in foods and beverages. Such individuals are also unable to tolerate sucrose - table sugar - which is broken down in the gut to glucose and fructose.
"To our knowledge this is the first time authorities have warned against tagatose for fructose intolerant people," a spokesperson for Arla Food Ingredients and the licensee of tagatose since 1996 told FoodNavigator.com.
But Arla said the warning was not totally surprising because, although not scientifically proven, the company itself warns authorities when applying for market rights that tagatose could pose a problem for fructose intolerant consumers due to the structure of the ingredient.
"One reason why other authorities have not issued the warning might be because in food and drink formulations the product is used in combination with other sugars. So people who are fructose intolerant know to avoid the sugars," added the spokesperson.
Tagatose occurs naturally at low levels in the gum from Sterculia setigera (an evergreen tree), as well as heated cows milk and other dairy products.
The sweetener, sold under the brand name Gaio tagatose, is used for food and beverage formulations such as breakfast cereals, carbonated and non-carbonated diet soft drinks, low fat/fat free ice cream and frozen dairy desserts, diet and health bars, diet soft confectionery, chewing gum and special purpose foods/meal replacements.
The ingredient, invented by US firm Spherix, will enter its first markets outside the US through the formulation of a new range of chocolate products by Miada Sports Nutrition of New Zealand, due to hit supermarket shelves in mid-2004.
The firm has also announced plans to expand tagatose use, developing and marketing a new line of carbonated, energy and diet drinks and protein bars, flavour-enhanced with Gaio tagatose, under its product line brand named 'Whoop Ass'.
In the US tagatose continues to build on its market position through direct contact with the consumer. The Danish firm can now see its tagatose sweetener emblazoned on the packaging of a new range of juices in the US, including supermarket titan WalMart. In addition, both inventor and distributor are looking to cash in on the growing low carbohydrate fad and the low glycemic index trend.
According to Spherix, while glucose has glycemic and insulinaemic responses of 100 per cent, Gaio tagatose produced very low glycaemic and insulinaemic responses of only 3 per cent in a recent study.
