Dr Axayacatl Gonzalez and his team at UQ's Biosustainability Hub are harnessing natural processes to produce a variety of rare sugars.
(Photo credit: The University of Queensland )
Key points
- Rare sugars are considered a 'healthy' low-calorie alternative to raw sugar and occur naturally in certain fruits
- Despite the obvious health benefits, the cost of sourcing and processing rare sugars has prevented wider usage in food and drink products
- Researchers at UQ's state-of-the-art Biosustainability Hub are using fermentation technologies to unlock a new, cost-effective source of valuable rare sugars
Soft drinks and foods containing rare natural sugars with fewer calories but a similar taste to table sugar could soon be readily available on supermarket shelves.
Synthetic biologists and bioprocess engineers at The University of Queensland are creating the highly valuable rare sugars in 'microbial cell factories' at the $70 million UQ Biosustainability Hub .
The hub was launched by Federal Assistant Minister for International Education Julian Hill at UQ's St Lucia campus.
Dr Axayacatl Gonzalez said rare sugars offered the same sweetness, texture and baking properties as raw sugar but production costs meant their price tag was a barrier to wider consumer uptake.
"These rare sugars occur in some fruits, and they are increasingly coveted as alternative food and beverage sweeteners by the hospitality and commercial food industries," Dr Gonzalez said.
"The health benefits are clear, and the sugar industry clearly identifies this as an opportunity to diversify their offering, but large-scale production is currently limited.
"The good news is we are able to harness natural processes in our lab to produce a variety of rare sugar molecules, using fermentation technologies which provide a sustainable alternative for the manufacturing of these molecules directly from raw sugar."
Dr Gonzalez's project involves an industry partnership with MSF Sugars and begins with bacteria commonly found in Queensland cane fields.
Australia's Food and Beverage Accelerator (FaBA) R&D scientist Dr Nathan Zhong engineered the bacteria's metabolism to create microbial cell factories that can produce rare sugars from a cane syrup feedstock.
Dr Nathan Zhong.
(Photo credit: The University of Queensland)
"Once we have the right bacterial strain, the equation is pretty simple: raw sugar goes in, and rare sugars come out," Dr Zhong said.
"These are products with much higher value than raw sugar because of the health and wellness benefits they offer as lower-calorie sugar alternatives.
"So far we have a library of bacterial strains capable of producing rare sugars when grown in UQ's custom-built bioreactors."
Australia is among the world's largest sugar exporters alongside Brazil, India and Thailand and the industry brings in $2 billion each year to the local economy.
MSF Sugar's General Manager Businesses Development, Jia Poontanasombat, said the work at the UQ Biosustainability Hub could ultimately help Australian sugar producers remain competitive internationally.
"Rare sugars are a high-value commodity that possess obvious health and economic benefits," Ms Poontanasombat said.
"The work being done at UQ's Biosustainability Hub is paving the way for producers to diversify their product offering in a way that meets the health needs of communities around the world."
Dr Gonzalez is the facility manager of the cell design studio IDEABio which is housed within UQ's Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) .
