At the IFT FIRST event last month, CarobWay introduced its low glycemic sweetener, which it demoed in energy bars and gummies. The carob fruit is 50% sugar (mostly sucrose) and has a range of applications for better-for-you foods and beverage, Alroy said.
Research into the fruit found that the “carob is the highest source in nature for D-pinitol,” which research suggests is a natural antidiabetic and insulin regulator and when combined with the sugar in the fruit could provide a host of functional benefits from anti-inflammatory and anti-obesity benefits as well as can help with diabetes management, he claimed.
CarobWay has also conducted bioavailability study using the SHIME in-vitro model process to study how the stomach and small intestines react to the carob fruit and found that it has a "slow absorption rate, which really doesn't make the spike of insulin like regular sugar," he added.
In addition to its functional benefits, the carob fruit “is one of the most sustainable crops there is in the world,” since it uses very little water and has a high carbon absorption rate. Additionally, since CarobWay is a natural ingredient company, it “uses 100% of the fruit, ... and we separate it into different sugar, fibers, polyphenols, with water extraction only, so the only waste we are really doing is water evaporation," he added.
"We are natural product people,” Alroy said. “We are not changing the nature. We are just extracting through water... There is a wisdom in the nature composition of any fruit, and the carob especially."
