Sugar is a difficult substance to replace in the food industry

Sugar is common in all foodstuffs, from tomato sauces to cured meats, to enhance flavor and colour, preserve ingredients or save on production, which is very difficult to replace in the food industry.

The World Health Organization seeks to combat obesity by reducing “hidden” or “free” sugar, which does not come in the form of a lump in coffee or powder in sweets, but rather that which the food industry adds to its products, juices, honey, and liquids that include cornstarch and other grains.

But the organization had lost this battle even before it was fought, says Michael Moss, who won the Pulitzer Prize for his investigations into the food industry and has published several books on the subject. He stressed that sugar is very difficult to replace in food products, even more than salt and fat, explaining that it is a “wonder ingredient in industry, as it is used to attract the consumer and reduce production expenses.”

Moss added, “When preparing a sauce, instead of using fresh red tomatoes, you use cheap tomatoes to which sugar is added to give it a natural flavor. Sugar is the best ally in reducing costs.”

For more than 10 years, Michael Moss investigated the practices of the giant groups in this sector in North America, and came to the conclusion that industrialists had developed advanced studies and experiments to adopt the point known as “Bliss Point,” which determines the ideal amount of sugar.

He explained that “they do not just add sugar to their products, but rather they calculate the specific amount that will prompt us to buy it,” because the consumer who is accustomed to consuming sugar in all items “has begun to want to eat sweetened products, and this habit has become a problem for children who no longer like vegetables.”

Moss pointed out that “industrialists are trying to deceive us by saying that some types of sugar are less harmful than others, but from a nutritional perspective, sugar is the same. Even when diluted substances are provided, they increase the proportions of salt and fat at the expense of sugar to preserve the taste.”

For his part, the director of the Sugar Studies and Documentation Center (SEDUC) in France, Philippe Risé, said, “The amount of sugar is very small in salty products. As for processed meats and canned vegetables, it ranges between 0.1 and 3% to enhance flavour, taste and colour.” “. To preserve the ingredients, a minimum of 50% sugar must be added, as is the case in jams. Breakfast cereals contain “70% carbohydrates, a quarter of which are sugars.”

Rize explained that 80% of the sugar consumed in developed countries “is consumed through sweetened and colorful products, such as sweets, chocolate, and ketchup. This percentage has remained constant over the past 20 years.”

The World Health Organization reported a study in which it stated that “80% of products sold in supermarkets in the United States contain hidden sugar.” Sugar is consumed in greater proportions in the United States, compared to Europe.