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The Spoon

Daily news and analysis about the food tech revolution

Better Juice

Better Juice Uses Microorganisms to Reduce Sugar in OJ (and Beyond)

On the weekends if I go out to brunch, I like to treat myself to a tall glass of orange juice along with my pancakes and eggs. Which seems like a healthy choice: OJ, after all, is fruit — it’s got to be good for me, right?

Apparently, not so much. According to a study in the journal Nutrition (via NPR), fruit juice has a fructose concentration of about 45.5 grams per liter — which is only a smidgen less than soda, which averages at 50 grams per liter. Just one cup of OJ has 21 grams of sugar, which is almost half of the FDA’s recommended daily sugar limit.

But you don’t necessarily have to ditch your OJ just yet. A company called Better Juice is developing a way to cut down on the amount of simple sugars in fruit juice, honey, agave, and more. Founded in 2017, the Israeli startup has created a column-shaped piece of hardware which contains mobilized non-GMO microorganisms.

The column is adjustable and electric powered. After the juice is squeezed workers pour it into the column, which uses pumps, heat exchangers, and cooling to pass the liquid through the micro-organisms and out the other side. As it goes through, the microorganisms convert the fructose, glucose, and sucrose (basically, all the molecules that make food taste sweet) in the juice into fibers that will, um, pass, instead of absorbing into your body.

“We’re not actually removing the sugar,” explained Better Juice CEO Eran Blachinsky over the phone. “We’re leaving it in the juice, just in a non-digestible form.” Blachinsky wouldn’t disclose what kind of microorganisms they used (algae, yeast, etc.) but told me that they were food grade. The entire process takes about one hour from start to finish.

Jenn Marston wrote about Better Juice earlier this year, stating that its low-sugar, high-fiber product “basically solves the two biggest gripes about fruit juice out there right now.”

Of course, reducing the digestible sugar content also means the juice will taste less sweet, so the company has to strike a balance between health and flavor. “We are able to reduce 87 percent of the sugars,” said Blachinsky. “But most people enjoy a 30 percent reduction.” According to him, that percentage maintains the sweet taste while still allowing the beverage company to label their product as “reduced sugar,” targeting health-conscious consumers.

Better Juice currently has six employees and has received approximately $500,000 from Israeli food tech incubator The Kitchen Hub. The company has just completed its prototype and will be piloting it abroad with three beverage companies: one in Israel and two “abroad.”

Each liter of Better Juice’s micro-organism-filled column can treat 1,000 liters of juice. Blachinksy didn’t disclose exact pricing details, noting that the number depends on the quantity in production, but said that 1 cubic meter of column would cost between $100,000 and $200,000 total. While the hardware will last indefinitely, the company has to replace the micro-organisms ever 2 to 3 months.

Reduced sugar beverages are growing in popularity — soda sales are down, while low-sugar or sugar-free ready-to-drink (RTD) products are on the rise. With its B2B technology that allows any juice (or honey, or ice cream, etc.) company to reduce the amount of sugar in their product, without sacrificing taste, Better Juice could help a large range of companies break into the burgeoning healthy drink market.

The only issue I could see is adoption difficulties on the manufacturing side. Blachinksy asserted that Better Juice’s column is easy to install and wouldn’t require specially trained or skilled employees, but it’s easy to be optimistic before the real-world test of a pilot program. If the column is indeed as easy to plug into manufacturing practices as Blachinsky hopes, it could be a pretty sweet (sorry) deal for all involved.

Next Up In Israeli Foodtech: Pesticides, Healthier Fruit Juice

As foodtech innovation goes, Israeli startup hub The Kitchen definitely has an eye for the “hot button” issues of in the food world, whether it’s sustainability, accessibility, better production, or health. It’s already invested in Meat the Future, who wants to find a better way to provide meat products to the world, and Amai Proteins, who uses biotech to create more environmentally friendly taste proteins.

The hub’s latest two investments, which were just announced, continue that trend, with projects that address possibly two of the most hotly discussed topics of the day: pesticides and sugar.

Inspecto has developed a portable kit that can be used for early detection of pesticides and other contaminants in food. The company claims its product will, once it hits the market, provide a much more affordable way to detect such things. Users operate a portable scanner to detect pesticides or contaminants, then analyze the results, which they get in real time. There’s no sending samples to a lab or getting other third parties involved.

Inspecto also wants to make the kit available up and down the food supply chain. Farmers would be able to measure the amount of pesticide residue on crops and ensure the levels adhere to regulations. Supermarkets could use the device to check for contaminated products before they hit the shelves. There’s even the possibility of using it at border patrol, so that food with contaminants or high pesticide levels can’t enter the country.

Inspecto is currently testing two pilot cases of its product: one in partnership with Strauss’s coffee program, and one with Shinho, a Chinese condiment company. The company wants to have kits available to customers within six to 12 months.

Meanwhile, Better Juice is tackling the ongoing concerns about sugar in fruit juice—a topic debated by everyone from medical practitioners to news organizations and soccer moms.

The startup is using sugar-reduction technology to create an enzymatic process that joins the sugar molecules in fruit juice, so that they form one long chain of fibers or carbohydrates. The result is a low-sugar, high-fiber juice, which basically solves the two biggest gripes about fruit juice out there right now.

The technology is currently in beta form, and Better Juice has used it on apple and orange juice. No word yet on the juice’s actual tastes or when it might become a more widely available process, but the mere fact that it’s possible to get low-sugar, high-fiber juice is an encouraging thought.

Outside of those two companies, Israel in general is becoming an important center for food technology, with some even claiming it’s in “the top five of countries in terms of food-tech innovation.” Late last year, researchers as the Hebrew University of Jerusalem introduced a patent-pending process for 3D-printing entire meals using nanocellulose. Just this month, SuperMeat raised $3 million in funding for its lab-made chicken. And The Kitchen has other investments in tech companies that address everything from food safety to finding alternative protein in fruit fly larvae.

“I am particularly interested to look at how agricultural and food ventures will transition to the digital world, adopting technologies such as machine learning and blockchain as the entire food industry becomes more advanced,” one Israeli VC recently noted. Given all these new developments, there should be plenty to watch over the next 12 months.