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Israeli start-up B.T. Sweet develops sugar substitute CAMBYA

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2 min read
AUTHOR: Fiona Holland
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Hazelnut cake and spread

B.T. Sweet, the Tel-Aviv-based foodtech start-up with a focus on sugar substitutes, has developed a new botanical sugar alternative called CAMBYA.

CAMBYA is a liquid plant-based sugar replacer, which can be added to foods in drops rather than spoonfuls.

The company hopes that this new formula will help food manufacturers cut significant levels of sugar from popular food items such as hazelnut and chocolate spreads, which are often popular breakfast options for children, according to CEO of the B.T. Sweet, Yoav Gaon.

“For many, a breakfast or school sandwich is incomplete without chocolate hazelnut spread,” he says.

“Parents struggle with their kids’ demands for it and have a hard time resisting it themselves. We succeeded in developing a tasty solution that kids of all ages love simply by switching white sugar with CAMBYA.

Sweet spreads regularly tend to be made up of 50% sucrose. Through much work and experimentation, B.T. Sweet’s latest invention claims to be able to cut levels of sucrose by at least half, making them much lower in sugar.

The new ingredient is made up of soluble fibres, botanicals and monk fruit and aims to be able to produce both a similar flavour and texture to sugar when added to sweet foods.

B.T. Sweet have tested the high fibre, low-calorie product in foods such as cereals, confectionary and ice cream.

CAMBYA has already gone through multiple sensory lab testing, and has also been tested out on parents and children.

Founder and Chairman of the start-up, Dagi Pekatch said: “Kids are the primary market for chocolate spreads, birthday cakes, cookies filled with cream and similar products.

“We received excellent feedback from them. They loved the taste of our CAMBYA sweetened hazelnut and chocolate spreads, and we all know kids are hard to fool.”

B.T Sweet was founded in 2019 after its founder Pekatch discovered he was close to being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes.

The unhealthy nature of kids’ snacks and its impact on childhood obesity levels is also currently being addressed in the UK, with the launch of the NHS Food Scanner App, which aims to help parents identify healthier food options for their children when shopping.

The World Health Organisation has noted that since 1975, obesity levels have increased threefold around the world. In 2016, they recorded that approximately 13% of the global population were obese.

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