Israel-based Better Juice, Ltd., the first food-tech startup to develop innovative technology to reduce all types of sugars in orange juice, and Citrosuco S.A, Brazil, one of the largest orange juice producers worldwide, are teaming up to establish a pilot plant that will reduce sugars in orange juice. Citrosuco is providing some of the funding plus technical and operational expertise.
 
Fruit juices contain vitamins, minerals, and many other beneficial nutrients, but this natural drink comes with three types of sugars. Better Juice’s enzymatic technology naturally transforms all types of fruit sugars into prebiotic and other non-digestible fibers and sugars.
 
“Our device use non-GMO microorganisms to convert the sugars, and provides orange juice manufacturers a ready opportunity to meet the trends and claims for reduced sugars, all while keeping the juicy flavor of the beverage,” said Eran Blachinsky, PhD, founder and CEO of Better Juice. “The global orange juices market is valued at dozens of billion US$ with outstanding potential to create better-for-you orange juice beverages.”
 
“We have been seeking an orange juice sugar reduction technology for some time,” said Alex Marie Schuermans, product development and applications general manager of Citrosuco. “Better Juice’s solution holds a lot of promise and we are confident that by combining their technology with our know-how, we can accelerate production of the first sugar-reduced orange juice.”
 
“This collaboration with Citrosuco is a vote of confidence in Better Juice’s leading technology and its capabilities for reducing sugar in orange juice,” noted Blachinsky. “We’re excited to work with this strategic partner and help create juices with low sugar—the latest frontier in sugar reduction.”
 
“Our proprietary technology can be tuned to reduce between 30% to 80% of all the sugars in orange juice,” said Blachinsky. “Making it easy conform to the minimum 25% reduction required by the FDA, as well as the 30% reduction required by the EFSA for allowable claims of ‘reduced sugar’ in food and beverage products.” 
 
The startup won the “Most Innovative Technology” award at the 2018 Startup Innovation Challenge at Health ingredients Europe in Frankfurt for its sugar reduction technology, which it developed in conjunction with The Hebrew University in Rehovot, Israel, and The Kitchen Hub incubator, Ashdod, Israel.