Regular flavour, diet drink?

Arla Foods' new functional ingredient, Gaio tagatose, is to debut in the US market with the national launch of a new diet Pepsi flavoured slurpee.

The drink to be sold at seven-eleven stores is to be enhanced using Gaio tagatose in combination with other high intensive sweeteners. The new product is claimed to improve the regular taste of a diet beverage, and combined with Erythritol, provide bulk preventing the drink from turning into a block of ice.

The compatibility of Gaio tagatose to a wide variety of healthier food products is likely to see it used in the bakery and snacks and confectionery industries. Believed to enhance toffee and mint flavour and prolong the sweetness delivery in chewing gum, it is also thought to brown easily, adding colour to various bakery and confectionery applications.

The healthy effects of Gaio tagatose are claimed to be ideal for functional products, toothfriendly properties and prebiotic effects. The sweetener is also believed to have no glycemic response making it of high interest to the rapidly growing low-carb market.

Arla Foods Ingredients owns the exclusive rights to produce and commercialise Gaio tagatose based on a co-operation with Nordzucker, which produces the product. This co-operation has now lead to an equal joint venture company, SweetGredients, subject to EU regulatory approval.

Gaio tagatose is approved for use in foods and beverages in the US and Korea. Approval procedures are under way in Australia, New Zealand and Japan while in South America approval procedures are in the initial phase.