Southern California based ingredient supplier and manufacturer, Blue California says work on scaling its production of the natural rare sugar allulose will be complete by the end of of 2019.
The company expects its proprietary non-GMO sweetener ingredient to achieve FDA GRAS (Generally Accepted As Safe) status next year.
Blue California’s allulose is created from natural substrates using a proprietary bioconversion technology to produce a natural and non-GMO sweetener. In nature, allulose is initially recognized in wheat, and found in certain fruits, including figs, raisins and jackfruit.
Allulose is a monosaccharide sugar that has a sugar-like taste and texture but with about one-tenth the calories of full caloric sugar. It has been shown to be helpful for diabetics and people measuring their blood sugar levels, since it does not impact blood glucose or insulin levels.
This is helping to make the natural sweetener an increasingly popular ingredient in a wide range of products, including food, beverages and confectionary.
This year, the FDA announced it will be exempting allulose from the ‘Sugars’ and ‘Added Sugars’ line of the Nutrition Facts Panel usually required on packaged foods. The decision meat that in future allulose will be labelled and listed under the ingredients list in the carbohydrate line of the “Nutrition Fact Panel.”
“Our preparation to achieve a large-scale position has been incremental in research and development, and now we are ready to achieve GRAS status to offer a valuable ingredient that is truly marketable and functional commercially,” said Hadi Omrani, director of technical and regulatory affairs.
