High sugar consumption is linked to many chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, dental caries, and others. Public health initiatives have focused on lowering intake of sugar-sweetened beverages and food products, as well as making such items generally less sweet.

Tang CS, Mars M, James J, et al. Associations between attitudes towards and reported intakes of sugars, low/no-calorie sweeteners, and sweet-tasting foods in a UK sample. Appetite. 2024 Mar 1;194:107169.

An alternative to sugar-free alternatives?

Although low/no-calorie sweeteners and sugar-free alternatives provide sweet sensations, these options fail to recapitulate the positive effects of real sugar in food, including flavor, texture, preservative effect, and browning.

Sugar-to-Fiber Enzyme for Healthier Food. Wyss Institute. 2024

Knowing consumers’ penchant for real sugar over alternatives, researchers at the Wyss Institute at Harvard came up with a different tactic for reducing sugar consumption: Why not develop a food additive that leaves sugar alone at ingestion, but converts it to fiber in the gut? This would, in theory, reduce the amount of sugar that enters the bloodstream—along with its deleterious health effects.

Of note, because the intellectual property is being licensed for commercialization, there is no peer-reviewed research currently available on the new technology.

How it works

“Pectin encapsulates the enzyme to prevent it from interacting with sugar,” Sam Inverso, PhD, a senior director at Wyss Institute, tells MDLinx. “The encapsulation is important, because otherwise the enzyme would immediately begin converting sugar to fiber before the food or beverage reaches the consumer. As the enzyme moves through the digestive system, the change from low pH in the stomach to high pH in the gut causes the pectin cage to expand and release the enzyme. The enzyme is now free to convert sugar to fiber.”

Dr. Inverso explains there are multiple enzymes that can be encapsulated, including an inulosucrase to convert sucrose to non-digestible inulin fiber and glucose, and a glucose dehydrogenase to convert glucose to D-gluconolactone.

The team at the Wyss Institute needed to ensure the enzyme remained intact at temperatures present during food processing and stayed encapsulated until exposed to a rise in pH, as is present during the transition from the stomach to the intestine. To this end, they consulted a gastroenterologist.

“Beyond just finding a solution that was technically sound, it was equally important to us that our solution would actually work in the real world of food manufacturing, because something that only works in lab conditions isn’t very useful,” stated Adama Sesay, PhD, a senior engineer at the Wyss Institute, in a press release.

Brownell L. Kraft Heinz partners with Wyss Institute to make sugar healthier. Wyss Institute. December 20, 2022.

Effects on the body

The Wyss Institute originally partnered with Kraft Heinz, which sponsored the project. Kraft Heinz’s goal was to achieve  conversion of 30% of the sugar to fiber. In the lab, the enzyme continues to convert sugar to fiber until the sugar is gone.

The benefits overall would be a reduction in calories, a reduction in glycemic response, and an increase in dietary fiber.

Because the research team is not composed of clinicians, Dr. Inverso couldn’t comment on the health benefits of the encapsulated enzyme with regard to specific metabolic disorders, such as diabetes.

Pre-clinical testing

The encapsulated enzyme technology is still in the preclinical stage, with mouse studies in progress at the Wyss Institute.

“The pectin is food grade; however, the enzyme needs to be FDA GRAS (generally recognized as safe) approved before human consumption. The enzymes exist naturally in plants we eat, so we don't expect it to be a difficult process,” says Dr. Inverso.

Commercialization

Kraft Heinz executives originally approached the Wyss Institute in 2018 with a request to find a sugar substitute that would replicate sugar’s physical and chemical properties.

Sugar-to-Fiber Enzyme for Healthier Food. Wyss Institute. 2024

In response, Donald Ingber, MD, PhD, who is the founder of the Wyss Institute, proposed this unprecedented alternative.

Although the research agreement with Kraft Heinz has ended, the Wyss Institute is in license with another (unnamed) company that plans to commercialize the product and ramp up production. The licensor may sell it as an ingredient in food or produce their own food or beverages, Dr. Inverso explains.