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Compound Chocolate  The German ingredients firm first launched its Fruit Up sweetener in 2001, and has developed versions for beverages,bakery, and ice-cream productions. The logo was re-launched lastyear for the ingredient brand. But building on the success so far, Wild sought to make it suitable for a new category of products - fruitjelly confectionery . This includes products like fruit pastilles, fruit gums, winegums and gummibears. "Fruit Up is perceived well and has caused high interest in thebeverage industry and a lot of interest from food customers," the company told FoodNavigator.com. "This is the reason for spreading it to the confectionery market." Emilio Colom, product manager for Fruit Up, explained that thedifference between the versions lies in the balance between thecarbohydrates from fruits, such as glucose and fructose forinstance. This is important so as to ensure the right sweetnessprofile and technical attributes. For fruit jelly confectionery, Wild has hit upon the mix ofcarbohydrates that prevents browning or crystallisation on thesurface of the finished product. The beverage version, on the other hand, is monosaccharide-rich,Colom said. The flavour profile needs to fit with the expectationthat the product will be sweet when first sipped, but to fadethereafter. Wild is supplying the new version of Fruit Up both as an ingredientand in its jelly confectionery concepts - that is, ready madeblends of ingredients to which the manufacturer of the finishedproduct only needs to complete the production stage. It alsosupplies "marketing arguments" that the customer can use. The sweetener is described as a composition of different fruitconcentrates. "This ingredient has no intrinsic flavour but creates a naturallysweet sensation in the final product," said the company. The sweetness intensity is said to be similar tothat of sugar. Low-GI for health As for the healthy aspect to the sweetener, Wild says Fruit Up hasa low glycaemic index. The glycaemic index measures how quickly certain foods releasecarbohydrates into the body, which then raise consumers' bloodglucose levels. High GI foods, including white bread, white rice,many prepared breakfast cereals and sugar, cause blood sugar levelsto rise more rapidly. Low GI foods include most vegetables, fruits,beans and unprocessed grains. Low glycaemic foods are presently receiving considerable attentionfor their contribution to a healthy lifestyle. The approach wasoriginally designed to help diabetics manage their blood sugarlevels by diet, but a low glcyaemic diet has also been linked to areduced risk of developing diabetes and heart disease. In some countries, since as Australia and the UK, glycaemic indexhas also been adopted by consumers as a weight management approach.The idea is to choose good carbohydrates, rather than eliminatingthem entirely as was the approach in the previously popular Atkinsdiet. Wild conducted a scientific study on the level and effect of theglycaemic index of Fruit Up in collaboration with researchers fromthe Nutrition and Food Science Group at the School of Life Sciencesat Oxford Brookes University in the UK. The company says this study showed it has a "very low glycaemic index". FoodNavigator.com has not seen the full methodology or results,and the study has not been published in a journal. The healthy confectionery market A report published in March by Global Industry Analysts predictedthat healthier eating patterns and strong economic growth, in bothdeveloping and developed markets, will boost global confectionerysales to $159.6bn by 2010. According to the report's authors, the market will on averageexperience compound annual growth of 3.95 per cent, thanks toproducts such as sugarless sweets and functional chocolate.