Pumpable sugar targets industrial bakers

Invasweet, for bakery products from hot cross buns to flapjacks and muffins, was developed to meet the market's need for a pumpable product with a lower soluble solids specification.

The UK sugar giant, owned by Associated British Foods, already supplies a range of inverts but this is the first pumpable invert, "where you need to control how much ingredient needed in automated production systems,"​ says Myra Hales, the firm's marketing manager.

Inverted sugar syrup is sucrose-based syrup treated with the enzyme invertase, and/or an acid, which splits each sucrose molecule into one glucose and one fructose molecule, giving a more rounded sweetness and preventing crystallisation.

Bakers using the inverts benefit from the fructose-sucrose combination that gives good colour development, Hales tells FoodNavigator.com.

Inversion can be partial as in products like golden syrup or complete (100 per cent conversion to glucose and fructose) depending on the functional properties required.

The inversion process is also used in fondant fills for chocolates. The enzyme is added but the filling is enrobed with chocolate before inversion has taken place while still very viscous. The filling then becomes less viscous with time.

After a soft launch earlier this year, British Sugar's Invasweet is available in 1.25 tonne pallecons or 25kg pails.

Hales declined to disclose the price of the product, adding that the final cost depends on the 'service package'.