Here’s great news for everyone with a sweet tooth: The cake and cookies we’ll be eating in the relatively near future will look just as appetizing as usual and will also have the same tantalizing taste. The great news is that it will also have an enzyme that reduces the amount of sugar absorbed into our bloodstreams. In fact, it may even turn that sugar into a fiber that’s healthy for the gut.
Can you imagine? Eating tasty morsels with fewer calories. If progress continues as planned, this enzyme will be used in many products and will be available at local supermarkets and convenience stores. Credit the scientists at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering for this development.
Here’s the story. In 2018, Kraft Heinz decided to develop a sugar substitute that would enable the company to reduce the amount of sugar in its products without losing any of its benefits. The scientists working on this project had an alternative theory they felt was better – keep the sugar, just make it healthier.
“The problem is not the sugar itself,” said Sam Inverso, Director of Business Development Partnerships at the Wyss Institute. “The problem is that we eat too much of it.”
Keep Trying
The Wyss’ Institute’s approach is the latest idea to help Americans control their sugar intake without eliminating it entirely. It’s not the only one. Among them is one that “involves a drink containing microscopic sponges that soak up sugar in the stomach at mealtime.” And still another that is being developed “are individual sugar crystals modified to dissolve more quickly in the mouth, making food taste sweeter” with less sugar.
At least some sugar is added by manufacturers to many (if not most) of the processed foods we eat such as cereals, and to many of the popular drinks we consume such as soda. Certain foods have naturally-occurring sugar, like those found in fruits and dairy products. In other words, most of us consume great quantities of sugar.
For many years now, lots of people have been avoiding sugary products for health reasons. More recently they’ve been getting help from the government. According to an article in The Wall Street Journal, “U.S. regulators in recent years have begun cracking down on added sugar, in 2016 requiring food and beverage makers to disclose on nutrition labels how much sugar has been added to products.”
This year, regulators are going even farther by limiting the amount of sugar that can be added to school meals. They are also considering requiring that foods high in unhealthy ingredients like sugar note that on the front of their packaging.
All Over The Place
Sugar is used in many different products, including some most of us would never expect, such as salad dressing and various condiments. says Steve Young, Managing Partner at the Private equity firm Manna Tree Partners, which invests in food companies.
Food and beverage companies are well aware of consumer preferences, and that’s why “they are ramping up work on new products with little to no added sugar—and trying to reduce it in existing ones,” he says.
With so many consumers avoiding sugar or cutting back on it, food companies use the artificial sweetener aspartame instead. It has become the main sweetener in many foods and drinks, including Diet Coke.
Aspartame came onto the scene years ago and appealed to consumers who wanted to cut down on calories or who had to avoid sugar. But over the years, concerns about its safety have impacted its popularity. More recently, some food companies have tried to replace sugar with natural ingredients like stevia and monk fruit, items that are so sweet that they can add flavor without adding calories.
While this idea made perfect sense in theory, it didn’t work in real life for a variety of reasons. For one, sugar is more than just a sweetener. It’s also a preservative. It adds texture and bulk, and when heated has a caramel color. That’s not all. Some consumers who have tried artificial sweeteners complain about an unpleasant aftertaste. And some substitutes are so intensely sweet that they are needed in much smaller quantities – to the extent that some of the foods they are added to become smaller in size. Says Young: “If you were to take the sugar out of a brownie, you don’t have much left.”
Moreover, reducing the sugar content in recipes may require modifying decades-old, proven recipes. Besides, substitutes may be more expensive, could need regulatory approval and may not appeal to consumers.
The Wyss Institute is now licensing its newest technology to help bring the enzyme to market, and Inverso says it may be available to U.S. food manufacturers in the first half of 2026. Other enzymes being developed would reduce lactose absorption after drinking milk or cut gluten after eating bread.
Despite all the benefits, the Kraft Heinz enzyme needs more work before it’s used in foods. For one thing, additional testing is necessary to get regulatory approval. Also, while using the enzyme in liquids could open a huge potential market, as of now the enzyme works better in solid foods than it does in liquids. There is also an issue of cost, as producing the enzyme in large quantities is 100 times more expensive than raw sugar, Inverso says.
But food companies recognize when they see great potential and they see one now. When this technology reaches consumers, it should be a win-win situation for everyone financially and possibly even health-wise. Good news for the New Year.
Wishing a healthy and happy New Year to all!
Sources: bloomberg.com; wsj.com
Gerald Harris is a financial and feature writer. Gerald can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
