PepsiCo, Cargill Explore Natural Sweeteners

Patents filed by PepsiCo and Cargill reveal they are exploring new sources of natural sweeteners from oats and monatin, a naturally-occurring substance found in a plant grown in South Africa, reports FoodNavigator.com.

A patent search conducted by Leatherhead Food Research (LFR) during research for its new report on the global intense sweeteners market, reveals that PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats division has developed a method of modifying oats using enzymes in order to derive a potent natural sweetener.

The application shows that Quaker has developed a method of producing a natural sweetener from oats that is “sufficiently sweet to allow it to be used as a supplement or replacement for sweeteners such as sucrose or sucrose substitutes, which are conventionally added to grain-based food products”.

According to the patent application, published last year, Quaker is exploring a number of potential applications: “It is contemplated that the naturally-derived self-sweetened compositions … can be used in a number of food products and beverages.

“For example, it is contemplated that the natural sweeteners can be used in oatmeal and other ready-to-eat cereals, beverages and puddings.”

The method outlined in the application involves hydrolysing oats with an enzyme to obtain modified flour and then drying the flour to obtain a sweetener composition. Suitable raw materials include whole oat groats, oat flour, rolled oats, partially milled oats and oatmeal.

Cargill explores new sweetener

Ingredients giant Cargill, meanwhile, has also filed an application to patent a novel sweetener comprising specific stereoisomers of monatin, a naturally occurring, high-intensity sweetener suitable for use in tabletop sweeteners as well as food and drink products.

Unlike some other intense sweeteners, monatin has no bitter metallic, acidic or astringent aftertaste, claims Cargill. It is also more stable than aspartame, has a cleaner taste than saccharin, is sweeter than sucralose and does not have the ‘liquorice’ aftertaste sometimes associated with stevia-based sweeteners, adds the firm.