Better Juice and Citrosuco collaborate to develop reduced sugar orange juice using proprietary technology

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Better Juice, Ltd. (Ashdod, Israel), a food tech startup, has partnered with Citrosuco S.A., Brazil, one of the largest orange juice producers in the world. Better Juice has developed an enzymatic technology that naturally transforms all types of fruit sugars into prebiotic and other non-digestible fiber and sugars. The collaboration aims to set up a pilot plant, with financial, technical, and operational support from Citrosuco to reduce sugars in orange juice using Better Juice technology.

“Our device uses non-GMO microorganisms to convert the sugars, and provides orange juice manufacturers a ready opportunity to meet the trends and claims for reduced sugars, all while keeping the juicy flavor of the beverage,” said Eran Blachinsky, PhD, founder and CEO of Better Juice, in a press release. “The global orange juice market is valued at dozens of billion US dollars with outstanding potential to create better-for-you orange juice beverages.”

"We have been seeking an orange juice sugar reduction technology for some time,” said Alex Marie Schuermans, product development and applications general manager of Citrosuco, in a press release. “Better Juice’s solution holds a lot of promise and we are confident that by combining their technology with our know-how, we can accelerate production of the first sugar-reduced orange juice.”

According to Bachinsky, Better Juice’s technology can be tuned to reduce sugars in orange juice between 30% and 80%, “Making it easy conform to the minimum 25% reduction required by the FDA, as well as the 30% reduction required by the EFSA for allowable claims of ‘reduced sugar’ in food and beverage products.”

Better Juice’s technology was developed in conjunction with The Hebrew University in Rehovot, Israel and the Kitchen Hub incubator in Ashdod, Israel.