Israeli company DouxMatok, which means double sweet in Hebrew, tackles the industry’s quest for low-sugar products without sacrificing on taste, texture and enjoyment.
Started 15 months ago, the food technology company works with US-based Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry in researching and developing sweetener solutions.
“The inventor of this technology was part of the Splenda team in Tate and Lyle. He’s Israel’s ‘youngest’ startup guy at 97 years old. And he happens to be my father,” CEO Eran Baniel told FNI at a press tour in Israel this month.
In April this year, the company was recognized as the outstanding company at the 3rd AgriVest Conference organized by Israel’s Ministry of Economy, Trendlines Agtech and GreenSoil Investments.
At the event, more than 300 participants tasted and could not tell the difference between regular sugar products and DouxMatok-sweetened versions, which the latter were 50%-reduced sugar items.
The company has four patents in the US and Europe for sweetener compositions.
“Rather than having millions of molecules in your mouth and only a few to your sweet taste receptors, we take food permitted, small, high surface activity particles with sugar molecules to give the receptors the impression that there’s more sugar than there actually is. These particles are white, have no taste of their own and zero calories,” said Baniel.
“We associate molecules of sugar with those of carriers for flavor delivery. We deliver flavor to the receptor in direct applications such as chocolate and whipped cream.”
“The carrier is made of one of the most abundant minerals on earth, which is safe for consumption. We take it and make a surface using non-convelant hydrogen bonding, which is why we need to change some of the culinary procedures,” he said.
“When you make whipped cream, sugar is normally added into the mixer at the start. However, the later you add DouxMatok into the mixture, the sweeter the product becomes.”
Enhanced flavors
At a product sampling session, tomato ketchup containing DouxMatok looked thicker, was more flavorful with a sour note from tomatoes than the control.
Fruit jam containing DouMatok had more texture and flavor than the control.
It was also as sweet as the control.
“The flavour may sometimes be enhanced using DouxMatok, in a jam for example. However, as sugar is reduced in the product by 54%, product shelf life can be shorter and you need to make up for the shortfall in terms of weight,” said Baniel.
“We presented to the laboratory staff of a UK chocolate manufacturer a product [control] and one containing DouxMatok at about 40% reduction of sugar. The staff liked how the product tasted.”
“However, the present 100g of chocolate bar containing 60% of sugar would weigh 24g lighter using DouxMatok. This called for a need to fill the product with other ingredients.”
In a meeting with a Mexican baking company, staff liked the product containing DouxMatok but they had to work the ingredient into the culinary recipe process.
The resultant product was sold in 20% less sugar in smaller packs.
With the benefits DouxMatok can bring to food and beverage manufacturers, Baniel stressed the importance of working with companies for tailor-made solutions and processes.
Besides working in consultant with factories, the company is in the process of establishing pilot plants in Israel and Canada.
These facilities would then enable manufacturers to experiment and find solutions using the ingredient with in-house expertise.
