Dear Beth Kevles,
I am writing to you after I have read your web site ( http://www.mit.edu:8001/afs/athena/user/k/e/kevles/www/nomilk.html). I have some relevant information for you concerning the following paragraph:
.......... ALERT!
A new, low-calorie sweetener is coming on the market soon. The good
news: it tastes great. The bad news: it's derived from whey. The name is
"tagatose" . It goes under the brand name Naturlose. I've contacted the
manufacturer to get information about how dangerous it might be for
people with milk allergy. In the meantime, be aware that it may show up
in toothpastes, mouthwashes, foods, and any other places where a
low-calorie sweetener would be used.)
My name is Erik Jensen and I represents Arla Foods Ingredients as a Business Development Manager for tagatose. Arla Foods Ingredients has entered in a joint venture company together with Nordzucker AG, called SweetGredients Gmbh and Co. KG. SweetGredients is the only world wide producer of tagatose, the brand names produced are Gaio tagatose and Naturlose.
I will like to inform you that, we have investigated the risk of dairy allergy and intolerance of consuming these products and the result of this investigation was that there is no traces of milk protein or lactose in our products. Thus, people with milk allergy may consume tagatose.
I have given an overview of our investigation below.
Allergens and tagatose
The US FDA has identified the following products as responsible for 90% of serious allergic reactions: Peanuts, Soybeans, Milk, Eggs, Fish, Crustacea, Tree Nuts and Wheat.
Gaio tagatose/Naturlose has had no contact with and contains no:
Peanuts, soybeans, eggs, fish, crustacea, tree nuts or wheat.
As for milk components, the raw material for the production of Gaio tagatose/Naturlose is lactose. However, the most sensitive milk protein analysis, ELISA can detect no trace of protein in the final crystals and the lactose content is below the detection limit for a HPLC analysis.
The Gaio tagatose/Naturlose production process involves enzymatic hydrolysis of lactose, chroma-tographic separation, treatment under highly alkaline conditions, ion exchange, another chromatographic separation step, active carbon filtration and crystallisation. Furthermore, the process involves several evaporation steps, making it highly unlikely that any milk component will survive.
We have entertained a dialogue with FARB (Food Allergy Research Board) and FAAN (Food Allergen and Annophylacsis Network), who have been convinced that Gaio tagatose/Naturlose contains no trace of milk protein or lactose. FARB will write and publish a small notice to this effect.
I hope this information is useful for you, if you have further questions, please don't hesistate to contact me.
Best Regards,
Arla Foods Ingredients
Erik Jensen
Business Development
erik.jensen@arlafoods.com, direct tel. +45 8938 1536