Active food ingredients firm Orafti claims that the new Leatherhead Food International report shows that its Raftilose product could help food makers target weight-conscious consumers with products usually associated with high-sugar content.
Sugars such as glucose are absorbed into the blood quickly stimulating a large glucose and insulin response. Low glycaemic index diets have been linked to weight control, while research has associated long-term high GI (glycaemic index) diets with heart disease and diabetes.
Belgium-based Orafti believes that it now has scientific evidence to suggest that food makers can convert from sugar to Raftilose without affecting taste.
In the new study, which was funded by food ingredients companies, scientists at Leatherhead Food International created a new range of lower GI ice-creams using sugar replacers and/or oligofructose (Raftilose). These were tested in volunteers against a traditional sugary ice cream to discover if the glycaemic response improved.
Twelve healthy volunteers (five men and seven women, average age 31 years) ate ice creams containing 15 per cent Raftilose or different types of sugar replacers. They also ate the traditional ice-cream containing 15 per cent sucrose (table sugar), or a glucose load.
Blood levels of glucose were measured over a 2hr period, and used to work out the glycaemic response.
Orafti claims that the Raftilose ice cream gave a glycaemic response that was 70 per cent lower than the glycaemic response produced after eating the traditional ice cream. This lower glucose release is believed by some scientists to be better for the metabolism.
"Adding oligofructose instead of sucrose significantly reduced the glycaemic response to eating the ice-cream," said Dr Anne Franck, executive vice-president of science and technology at Orafti.
The glycaemic index (GI) is commonly used to rank the (available) carbohydrate content of a food on a scale of 1 to 100 assuming that a glucose drink will give you a value of 100.In this particular experiment, glycaemic response was calculated by testing volunteers' blood glucose levels over a 2 hr period after they had eaten different types of ice cream. These results were compared with blood glucose levels after consumption of a glucose drink.
The oligofructose ice cream gave a glycaemic response of 13, while the traditional ice cream gave a glycaemic response of 44.
Orafti hopes that its product will increase its market share in the highly lucrative prebiotics sector. The European prebiotic market is currently dominated by fructan (inulin and fructooligosaccharides) and galactooligosaccharide products, sales of which were thought to be worth about €87 million in 2003, according to Frost & Sullivan.
Analysts expect this market to grow to €179.7 million by 2010.
Orafti Group is a subsidiary of the Belgian agro-food group Raffinerie Tirlemontoise/ Tiense Suikerraffinaderij and is part of the Orafti / Palatinit Ingredients Group of Südzucker.