In the bioreactors of the American company Bonumose, maltodextrin, a notorious variant of high-fructose corn syrup calorically similar to table sugar, will be poured in a month to obtain 'rare sugar' tagatose. The application of this ingredient promises a revolution in the food industry, if one is to believe the advocates of the enzymatic technology used by Bonumose.
Tagatose is known to consumers from artificial sweeteners, but its production is expensive, and due to the way it is metabolized, its advocates claim it can improve dental health and digestion and stabilize insulin levels. In other words, Bonumose intends to drastically reduce production costs and promises to enable the creation of healthy sweets from unhealthy raw materials.
One of its investors is the Hershey company, creator of brands such as M&M's and Kit Kat, the same one accused of not caring about sustainable and ethical cocoa trade, and last year was accused of exploiting children as slaves on plantations in Ivory Coast.
The stories about the dirt surrounding this new venture do not end here. Bonumose's technology originated in the American company of Chinese bioengineer Yi-Heng Percival Zhang. His laboratory started about 15 years ago companies for developing batteries for smartphones powered by sugar, using sugar to produce hydrogen for cars and medicine. Today he is surviving in China after serving a two-year conditional sentence in Virginia for conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, making false statements, and obstruction of justice.
