UK sugar and sweetener group Tate & Lyle is hoping to engineer a reversal in its fortunes after a difficult few years with the launch of a calorie-free sugar product, sucralose.
The product is based on sugar, but is treated with an intense refining process that takes out the calories and modifies elements of the sugar molecule which make sugar fattening.
The end product, called Splenda, is 600 times sweeter than normal sugar and is mixed with starch to make it taste just like normal granulated sugar. Unlike many sugar substitutes, it can also be used in the same way as normal sugar.
The product could also be useful to diabetics, who need to keep a strict control of all sugar intake. Scientists have found a way to remove parts of the sugar molecule that diabetics have difficulty digesting.
Sucralose is already available in 40 countries including Australia, Canada and the US, where it is distributed under licence by Johnson & Johnson. Tate & Lyle is awaiting approval from the UK Food Standards Agency before it release sucralose in the UK. The group anticipates gaining approval next month. If this goes to plan, sucralose could hit the shelves in the UK in the autumn.
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