SINGAPORE — SGX-listed Singapore eDevelopment Ltd (“SeD”) announced today that U.S. biomedical subsidiary Global BioLife Inc. has developed a breakthrough low-calorie, low glycemic index, natural, modified sugar Laetose — which has the potential to affect the world’s sugar market.
Global Biolife has established a collaboration with top U.S. candy manufacturer Quality Candy Company LLC for the development, manufacture and global distribution of Laetose.
Developed by Mr Daryl L.Thompson, Global BioLife Director of Scientific Initiatives, Laetose is a functional sugar with a 30% to 50% lower calorie-count than regular sugar, possesses low glycemic properties, and also assists in mitigating inflammatory responses.
According to a World Health Organisation report released in Oct ’17, the number of obese children aged 5 to 19 rose globally more than ten-fold from 11mil in 1975 to 124mil in 2016. The World Health Organisation report said that countries should seek to reduce consumption of cheap, ultra-processed, calorie-dense nutrition-poor foods.
Studies have shown that excessive sugar consumption is the primary cause of modern diseases such as cardiovascular disease, Type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity. While sugar is not toxic, the human body perceives it as such and, in turn, initiates pro-inflammatory responses. Laetose could help mitigate such reactions by reducing the rate of glucose absorption throughout the body.
Quality Candy has a Safe Quality Food (“SQF”) Level 3 – Excellent certified manufacturing facility and is a leading manufacturer and distributer of high-quality candy with distribution in locations across the globe. They will utilize their state-of-the-art facility and expertise to manufacture Laetose according to the unique formula discovered by Global BioLife.
“In this day and age, we should be exploring ways to make smarter foods. Our Laetose modified sugar has been designed specifically for this purpose,” said Global BioLife’s Mr Thompson, a pioneering natural products scientist cited, amongst others, for his achievements in organic and carbohydrate chemistry.
Mr Chan Heng Fai, Executive Chairman of SeD, said: “Cardiovascular disease, Type-2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and obesity have become a global epidemic. SeD has invested in Global BioLife as a think tank designed to research and develop smarter consumer products to reverse or mitigate this growing trend.”
“Quality Candy has been on a quest for over a decade, looking for a natural sugar substitute,” said Mr Jim Gist, Chief Revenue Officer of Quality Candy. “This product is finally the breakthrough our industry needed to improve existing reduced-calorie and sugar-free products and help consumers around the world live a healthier lifestyle.”
The market for a safe and affordable alternative to sugar is growing due to increasing awareness of health risks associated with the excessive consumption of refined sugar. Although Laetose is marketed as an alternative usable in everything from baking to cooking, and as a tabletop sweetener, the ultimate goal is to infuse Laetose into the multibillion-dollar beverage industry. Unlike other natural-based and artificial sweeteners widely used in beverages, Laetose’s unique patent-pending formula has no aftertaste.
“Due to the perceived toxicity of prolonged use of artificial sweeteners and the inability to use them as a direct replacement for sugar in baking and many beverages, we believe our product will have a direct advantage. We believe that the world is looking for a way to maintain sweetness while avoiding the negative effects of sugar and we intend to provide the solution,” Mr Thompson added.
Dr Peggy Tang, Global BioLife CEO, said: “Laetose is our first step in creating smarter foods. We have confidence that our collaboration with industry leader Quality Candy will enable us to accomplish our goal.”