Sweeteners
甜味剂之惑
Top that
假作真时
Jul 10th 2008 | NEW YORK
From The Economist print edition
The battle to replace sugar intensifies
代糖市场争锋加剧
THINGS have been stirring lately in the sugar business. This month Tate & Lyle, a European food giant known for Golden Syrup, its venerable brand of sugar syrup, sold its international sugar-trading arm; the move followed its disposal of its sugar businesses in the Americas. And US Sugar, America’s largest sugarcane producer, may go out of business altogether and sell its land for $1.7 billion to the state of Florida, which plans to restore it to marshland.
糖业市场近来动荡不断。本月，泰莱集团售出了国际糖品贸易部门。这家欧洲食品巨头拥有的糖浆品牌Golden Syrup历史悠久，声名远播。此前，集团也对分设在美洲各地的食糖企业进行了调整。与此同时，美国规模最大的甘蔗制糖企业US Sugar面临歇业，或将所有的甘蔗种植田以17亿美元的价格售予佛州，而该州计划将之退耕还沼。
Several forces are at work: growing concern about obesity, alarming scientific reports about artificial sweeteners and soaring agricultural prices. Sales of sugar and sweeteners, collectively worth about $4 billion in America alone, have hit a wall. According to Mintel, a market-research firm, sales of white sugar fell by 16% in real terms between 2002 and 2006. Sales of artificial sweeteners such as aspartame and saccharine, which had made successful inroads into the sugar market in recent years, are also in trouble.
乱局背后，有几个因素在暗隐发力，包括消费者对于肥胖的日渐忧虑，围绕代糖所作的科研报告的结论触目惊心，以及农作物价格飙升等。单在美国一地，食糖和甜味剂的销售额合起来就高达40亿美元左右，已显瓶颈之势。市调公司Mintel公布的数据表明，以实值计算，白砂糖的销量在2002年到2006年间下滑了16%。阿斯巴甜和糖精等人造甜味剂，近年来成功挤入糖业市场，但眼下其销量也令人堪忧。
For a while it seemed that health worries over natural sugar products, and especially high-fructose corn syrup, heralded a bright future for artificial sweeteners. Between 2002 and 2006 sales of sugar substitutes shot up by 22% in real terms in America. But a spate of scientific studies has raised doubts about artificial sweeteners. Some studies have linked the chemically derived sweeteners to cancer in laboratory rats, and others claimed that such sweeteners, by “tricking” the brain without satisfying the body’s cravings for sweet treats, may actually promote overeating. Whatever the scientific merit of those studies, consumers are more wary of such products than they used to be.
曾几何时，人们对于天然食糖，尤其是高果糖的玉米糖浆是否有碍健康心存疑虑，这似乎昭示着人造甜味剂的灿烂前景。从2002年到2006年，以实值计算，代糖产品在美国的销量蹿升了22%。但是，大量的科研成果对之提出了质疑。有些研究指出，化学提取的甜味剂与试验室白鼠患癌不无关系；有些则声称，此类产品”欺骗”了大脑，未能真正满足身体对甜食的渴求，因而实际上可能导致糖分的过量摄入。无论这些研究的科学价值何在，消费者对代糖产品要比过去更加慎重。
Splenda, a sweetener produced by McNeil Nutritionals, a division of Johnson & Johnson, has done well by sidestepping both concerns over obesity and worries about “unnatural” sweeteners. Though it is made in the laboratory and is, technically, an artificial sweetener, the raw material is sugar molecules. McNeil duly marketed it under the slogan “Made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar”, and Splenda became the leading artificial sweetener in America. But Merisant, a rival maker of artificial sweeteners, sued McNeil, alleging that the slogan was inaccurate. The case was settled out of court last year. McNeil has modified its marketing to make clear Splenda is “not sugar”.
由强生集团旗下的McNeil营养品公司所生产出的甜味剂Splenda，避开了人们对于肥胖的忧虑和”非天然”代糖品危害的担心，市场表现不俗。尽管该产品由实验室合成，在技术层面上确系人造，但其原料却是糖分子。公司以”食糖制成，口感天然”为口号应时行销，Splenda遂于同类产品中脱颖而出，引领美国市场。但竞争对手Merisant公司起诉McNeil，称其口号弄虚作假。双方在去年庭外和解，而后McNeil修改了营销策略，强调 Splenda并非”食糖”。
Another way to find a middle ground between natural sugar and artificial sweeteners is to blend the two, says Craig Petray, boss of NutraSweet, another sweetener company. In 2007 his firm established a joint venture with Domino Foods (the descendant of America’s former sugar monopoly) and launched just such a blend, called Pure D’Lite. Blended sweeteners can taste better, and they are often cheaper than high-fructose corn syrup-especially since the recent spike in corn prices.
甜味剂生产商纽特公司(NutraSweet)的老总Craig Petray说，在天然食糖和人造代糖之间中寻求折中途径的另一种办法是将二者混合。2007年，该公司与Domino Foods（前身曾是美国制糖界垄断企业）组建了合资企业，并推出了这么一款叫做Pure D’Lite的混合产品。混制而成的甜味剂口感更佳，而且常比高果糖玉米糖浆便宜。这在目前谷物价格飙涨的情况下，尤显突出。
The latest entrant in the sweetener market was unveiled in New York on July 9th by Cargill, an American agribusiness giant. Truvía is a new zero-calorie sweetener developed in partnership with Coca-Cola, which has exclusive rights to its use in fizzy drinks. Cargill hopes the new product, which will launch nationwide in the autumn, will eventually top $200m in sales.
美国农业综合企业巨头嘉吉(Cargill)公司7曰9日在纽约公布了进军市场的新品Truvía。这是一款新型的无卡甜味剂，由嘉吉与可口可乐公司联合开发，后者享有将之制作成碳酸饮料的专营权。嘉吉希望，这款将于今秋在全国上市的新品最终能猛赚2亿美元以上。
Truvía’s clever twist is that it is derived from stevia, a bush found in South America and Asia. This means that it is neither sugar, nor a purely artificial sweetener, but is instead what Cargill calls a “natural” zero-calorie sweetener. (In fact, Truvía combines rebiana, a substance derived from stevia bushes, with erythritol, a kind of sugar alcohol found in fruits.) But caution may still be in order. The controversy around Splenda, says Marcelo Montero of Cargill, shows that “consumers are no fools.” And NutraSweet’s Mr Petray admits that “sugar is still the gold standard.”
Truvía异于同类产品的巧妙之处在于，它是由生长在南美洲和亚洲的灌木植物甜叶菊提炼而成。这就意味着，该产品既非糖类，亦非纯粹的人造甜味剂，而是嘉吉公司所说的 “天然”无卡甜味剂。（事实上，Truvía 混合了从甜叶菊中提取的成分 rebiana和水果中含有的赤藓糖醇）。即便如此，这也未必能够撼动人们的戒心。嘉吉公司的马塞罗•蒙特洛（Marcelo Montero）表示，围绕Splenda产生的争议表明，”消费者不是傻瓜。”而纽特公司的Petray先生也承认：”食糖仍是最终的标准。”
译者： 零下1℃ http://www.ecocn.org/forum/viewthread.php?tid=12687&extra=page%3D1