Fermentation is becoming a flavorful and cost-effective technique for food companies to make plant-based proteins with reduced sugar. Food Business News highlights numerous companies using fermentation in their processing to make a product with less sugar. Florida Food Products is using a lactic acid fermentation process, lowing sugar content in beet juice by 10%. Christopher Naese, the vice president of business development, says: “The result is a clean label ingredient with a fresh flavor and light sweetness coupled with beet’s inherent health benefits. Fermented beet juice is an opportunity to offer on-trend label benefits for health-conscious consumers while delivering appealing taste attributes along with lower sugar content and a simple label declaration.” Besides lowering sugar content, the fermentation process also lowers the beet juice’s pH, which results in a brighter flavor with red berry notes and a less earthy taste, he said. “Though long established in Eastern European, African and Asian cuisines, fermented flavors have only recently captured American consumers’ taste interest, and while there appears to be widespread interest in fermented foods and beverages, this trend toward global flavors is driven mainly by adults under 40 years old.”
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