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posted by martyb on Friday September 08 2017, @10:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the How-sweet-it-is! dept.

Coca-Cola is using the HeroX crowd-sourcing platform to hold a $1 million competition for a new sugar substitute:

"Sugar is now the number one item that consumers want to avoid in their diets," says Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst with the NPD Group. The message to consume less is coming from health experts around the globe.

It's a challenge for the beverage industry, as is the fact that many consumers don't like the idea of artificial sweeteners found in diet drinks. So, the search for new, alternative sweeteners that can appeal to consumers' changing tastes is in full swing. And Coca-Cola has turned to crowd-sourcing.

The company has launched a competition on the crowd-sourcing platform HeroX. According to this description on Coca-Cola's corporate website, Coke is seeking "a naturally sourced, safe, low- or no-calorie compound that creates the taste sensation of sugar when used in beverages." The company says, "one grand prize winner will be awarded $1 million in October 2018."

So, can scientists come up with this kind of sweetener? "Well, this is a hundred-million dollar question, because it's so difficult and so potentially lucrative," says Paul Breslin, a professor in the nutritional sciences department at Rutgers University and a member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center.

Hang on, is it a one million dollar question or a hundred-million dollar question? Maybe I should get Silicon Valley to fund my sugar substitute instead of Coca-Cola.

Related: Coca-Cola Pulls Twitter Campaign after being Tricked into Quoting "Mein Kampf"
Twitter Monetizes By Adding Coca-Cola Emoji (where is our sponsored emoji?)
How Coca Cola's 3D Times Square Advertising Sign Works


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  • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 08 2017, @03:40PM (2 children)

    by meustrus (4961) on Friday September 08 2017, @03:40PM (#565149)

    Sugar is a food that is far and away easier to overconsume than any other. That's the danger of carbohydrates. You can't eat a full day's worth of kcal in fat in one sitting without feeling really sick. You...could eat a full day's worth of protein in whey powder or something, but it's not exactly palatable or cheap to do so. But it's incredibly easy to open a bag of chips and a six pack of cokes and consume 2000-3000 kcal in one sitting. Some people don't even feel bad about doing so.

    And no, just because it's from a natural source doesn't mean that HFCS [wikipedia.org] is natural. It is produced by a multi-stage chemical process:

    The first enzyme added is alpha-amylase, which breaks the long chains down into shorter sugar chains – oligosaccharides. Glucoamylase is mixed in and converts them to glucose; the resulting solution is filtered to remove protein, then using activated carbon, and then demineralized using ion-exchange resins. The purified solution is then run over immobilized xylose isomerase, which turns the sugars to ~50–52% glucose with some unconverted oligosaccharides and 42% fructose (HFCS 42), and again demineralized and again purified using activated carbon.

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  • (Score: 2) by ledow on Friday September 08 2017, @03:56PM (1 child)

    by ledow (5567) on Friday September 08 2017, @03:56PM (#565159) Homepage

    "enzyme"
    things ending in -ase
    and things ending in -saccharides

    are in no way indicative of a non-natural source or process.

    • (Score: 2) by meustrus on Friday September 08 2017, @05:06PM

      by meustrus (4961) on Friday September 08 2017, @05:06PM (#565200)

      The process, which uses biological agents derived from nature, is by definition artificial. "Natural" syrups and sugars only exist at far lower purities. Sugarcane goes through an artificial process to become refined white sugar, though this process is more primitive than the HFCS chemistry. Even maple syrup, which is derived from natural tree sap, is technically artificial because of the process of boiling it down.

      When it comes down to it, every sugar in our food today comes from an artificial process. Which means we did not evolve to process sugar in these high concentrations.

      Artificial [dictionary.com]: made by human skill; produced by humans (opposed to natural )

      Natural [dictionary.com]: existing in or formed by nature (opposed to artificial )

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