Starch sugar is an important field for deep processing of starch, and is an important raw material for medicine, food, fermentation and other industries. Starch sugar is the fastest growing sweetener in the world for more than 30 years. The annual production of starch sugar in the United States has now exceeded 8 million tons, accounting for more than 60% of total sugar consumption. The consumption of sugar in the EU and Japan is also dominated by starch sugar. There are many varieties of starch sugar, such as crystalline glucose for clinical treatment, liquid glucose for confectionery processing, the best sweetener for beverages, grape juice, and oligosaccharides with health care functions. At present, the market prospect of oligosaccharides is the best.

Starch syrup production equipment

Oligosaccharides are a general term for some Indigestible sugars. Unlike sucrose, oligosaccharides are not degraded by human stomach acid and warm enzymes, so they are not absorbed in the small intestine and can be directly absorbed into the large intestine. Oligosaccharides do not damage teeth. Oligosaccharides also have physiological functions that promote the proliferation of human bifidobacteria. Because oligosaccharides have these excellent properties, many countries have used them as functional foods or functional ingredients in recent years, and have been widely used in health foods, functional beverages, medicines, and feeds. At present, the EU needs 1.2 million tons of oligosaccharides, worth US$2.5 billion. In China, only two or three companies, such as Xinjiang Zongheng Co., produce isomalt oligosaccharides, and the market space is relatively large.

In addition to a few countries with abundant sugar cane resources, the consumption of starch in developed countries is high. Since the United States developed the starch sugar industry in the late 1970s, the market share of starch sugar in the consumption of sugar has increased rapidly, and it is currently the world's largest producer and seller of starch sugar. In 2012, the total amount of starch sugar in the United States was 13.61 million tons, of which two-thirds were fructose syrup, others were crystalline glucose, solid corn syrup and maltose syrup.

Corn starch syrup processing

The fundamental driving force of the starch sugar industry comes from two aspects. First, the widening of the price difference between sugar and starch sugar increases the substitution effect of starch sugar on sugar, and enhances the market competitiveness of starch sugar. Second, the food industry, especially the beverage industry. Development has increased the demand for sugar, which provides a market opportunity for the development of the starch sugar industry.

The rapid development of starch sugar industry stems from the violent fluctuation of sugar price. Because the raw material cost of starch sugar is low and the sugar yield is high, when the price difference between sugar and starch sugar is higher than 1500 yuan/ton, the terminal enterprise will more willing to replace sugar with starch sugar.

Fructose syrup becomes the main body of the beverage formula:

DOING fructose syrup processing equipments

The production of starch sugar is not restricted by regions and seasons, and the production cost is low. Therefore, it is rapidly expanding under the environment of high sugar prices and low raw corn prices. Its rapid development not only benefits from the increase of the food industry, but more importantly, seized the market share of sugar. And the beverage industry is the industry with the most applications of starch sugar.

With the acceleration of urbanization, the beverage industry has continued to develop rapidly for more than a decade. Although the growth rate has slowed down since 2015, it has maintained a growth trend.

Fructose syrup is one of the most popular products in the starch sugar industry. The sweetness of fructose syrup is close to that of the same concentration of sucrose, and the flavor is somewhat similar to natural juice. The biggest advantage of fructose syrup is that it contains a considerable proportion of fructose, which gives the product a fragrant and refreshing feeling. On the other hand, fructose syrup has a cold sweet characteristic below 40°C, and the sweetness increases with decreasing temperature. Fructose syrup is used together with other sweeteners to have superior synergistic effect. It is not only technically feasible to replace sucrose with fructose syrup in beverages and other products, but also highlights the fragrant and refreshing characteristics of fructose syrup.

In the beverage industry, sugar and fructose syrup are the most interchangeable ones. When the processing plant chooses which type to use, it is mainly driven by cost. There is no other barrier to the replacement of the two. With the improvement of people's living standards, the beverage market still has a large room for development in small and medium-sized cities and rural areas.