Virginia Factory to Use Advanced Tech for Creating Healthy Sugar

What are the Main Criteria of Bonumose for Creating a Healthy Sugar

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Bonumose uses processed corn products which are also known as maltodextrin. This element is found in many junk foods and is bad for teeth also. But the factory does not use it as the main ingredient but uses this element as raw material. It is basically a starch that the factory plans to convert into Tagatose. 

Raw starch is an abundant substance in agriculture and is often treated as waste. But, by using the right techniques, this starch can be converted into a low-calorie and non-cariogenic sweetener called Tagatose. This rare sugar is available in small quantities in fruit, some grains, and milk. The best part is that it is as sweet as the sucrose but with half the calories of sucrose. 

Also, it gets metabolized easily and thus Tagatose can help in improving dental and digestive health. Also, it can stabilize insulin levels in humans. 

Technology Virginia Factory Use to Create Healthy Sugar

Although the FDA considers Tagatose a safe food, it is expensive and difficult to isolate until now. Bonumose’s technology is specially designed to convert maltodextrin or starch into Tagatose at commercial scales. The technology is spun out of the Virginia Tech lab, and credit goes to Zhang. Born in China, Zhang is a bioengineer who won various awards and has done multiple types of research in bioengineering fields. The conversion of starch to Tagatose is one of them. 

In 2006, he was awarded as America’s “best and brightest” by Esquire magazine for his work on converting starch into cheap ethanol.

“If we can sell anywhere near the volume of high-fructose corn syrup, then you’re talking tens of billions of dollars a year [in] revenue,” says Ed Rogers, Bonumose’s CEO. “And the effect on public health could save arguably trillions in health-care costs.”

Controversies 

After spending a few years in the USA, Zhang left for a three-week trip to China. He started a part-time contract at the Tianjin Institute of Industrial Biotechnology in China.

Later a conflict started between Bonumose and Zhang. Further, this difficulty did not end with a civil case. According to FBI evidence, Zhang and Roger both were the unnamed co-inventors on TIB’s tagatose patent. 

Now the factory is using the technology and trying to create healthy sugar for sweet lovers.