10124512SweetFiber: A novel sugar replacement from agricultural by-products for improved gut health and food sustainabilityClosedCollaborative R&DInnovate UKThe 20th century food system relied heavily on easily accessible and refined carbohydrates high in sugar, providing abundant calories but contributing to health risks. Diets high in sugar and low in fibre are leading factors contributing to death and disability worldwide, being associated with increased risk of developing many chronic diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer. Simultaneously, traditional agricultural systems struggle with scalability issues amid growing populations and negative environmental impacts from extensive water and land use. To address these imbalances, prioritise environmental sustainability, and respond to demands from governments and consumers, the food industry must find alternatives to effectively replace sugar in foods. However, sugar is a relatively cheap and highly functional ingredient - providing not only sweetness, but also bulking, browning, texture, caramelisation, among other properties to solid foods. Alternatives are limited, as no ingredients currently available can replace sugar functionally and economically at scale. Cambridge Glycoscience (CamGlyco) has developed Sugars from Fibre (SFF), a sugar replacement derived from agricultural by-products such as corn cobs and oat hulls that can replicate the performance of sugar while improving the nutritional profile of foods by simultaneously reducing sugar and increasing dietary fibre. This collaboration between Cambridge Glycoscience Ltd and the University of Glasgow looks to develop various compositions of CamGlyco's "Sugars from Fibre" to optimise beneficial effects on gut microbiome and relevant health biomarkers _in vitro_ and _in vivo_ in human subjects. This will allow selection of an SFF composition that combines optimal performance in food matrices with physiologically beneficial effects on gut microbiome and other biomarkers of improved human health, contributing to the evidence base necessary for the regulatory approval of the ingredient in the UK and therefore in bringing this innovation to commercial reality.