• Xylitol is a sugar alternative found in a wide variety of plants, including many fruits and vegetables. It has a sweet taste and up to 40% less calories than sugar.
Natural sweeteners are an important health management tool for many people because they contain fewer calories than sugar, can support dental health, and can be used in the restrictive diet of diabetics. More and more manufacturers are willing to use them in a growing variety of food and bakery products, and the same is true for the pharmaceutical industry.
If most sweeteners are synthesized through elaborate chemical processes, xylitol is one product derived from nature, so it is considered a safer option, especially for people who cannot process artificial sweeteners. It is a common ingredient in sugar-free chewing gums, candies, dietary supplements, diabetic foods, and oral care products.
Xylitol is found in small amounts in many fruits and vegetables and is therefore considered natural. An important source of this sweetener is the sap of the birch tree, by processing it obtaining birch sugar.
It also has the same level of sweetness as regular sugar, meaning it can replace the use of sugar in cooking. With 40 percent fewer calories than sugar, xylitol has a glycemic index of 7, much lower than regular sugar, which has a glycemic index of 60-70. For people with diabetes or obesity, xylitol is an excellent alternative to sugar.
Transformation of agricultural by-products into sweeteners
In a circular economy, nothing is wasted because by-products from one industry can be used to develop another valuable product. Thus, the impact on the environment is reduced because everything is recycled or reused.
As a natural sweetener, xylitol has many sources in nature. For example, berries, mushrooms and lettuce contain this substance, but in such small amounts that it is not considered to be extracted from these foods, which have health benefits eaten as such. However, xylitol comes from a sugar precursor known as xylose, is found in almost any type of biomass.
Non-edible plant materials such as rice straw and plant miscanthus, contain sufficient levels of xylose to make it possible to extract and use biotechnology to convert it into the sweetener xylitol. These plant materials are often available in abundance, have limited value in their raw form, and the process of growing and extracting xylose can remove more carbon from the atmosphere than is released.
In most cases, some form of pretreatment is required. The processing of raw materials from the straws of different types of plants involves a physico-chemical steam-based treatment of the material to release the sugars. These are then converted into raw xylitol by fermentation, which is finally separated and purified with additional processing steps to obtain pure xylitol.
This process is relatively laborious, requiring both significant time and resources, and the number of companies with commercial-scale pretreatment capacity is limited. At the same time, fermentation-based production, although widespread, involves high costs. And when it comes to developing expertise and investing in bioprocessing technologies, significant research and development efforts are required.
Scaling up sustainable xylitol production through biotechnological solutions
In this sense the British company, ArcitekBio, proposes biotechnological solutions for the production of sweeteners, namely xylitol, through the biological processing of vegetable by-products.
ArcitekBio transforms agricultural by-products, such as the straw of the rice plant, into the natural sweetener xylitol. Traditionally, xylitol from these sources is manufactured through chemical processes that require toxic catalysts, high temperatures, and produce a lot of waste. Producing xylitol through the innovative sustainable biotechnological process developed by the British company can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and associated energy requirements by harnessing agricultural by-products and converting them into useful products.
There is huge potential in using by-products from different sectors and turning them into valuable alternatives such as xylitol. These by-products are generally of low value, and their recycling can significantly contribute to lowering carbon emissions in the atmosphere, bringing multiple economic, environmental and health benefits.
Article written by Gabriela Dan, Editor of Arta Albă
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