710516New Alkaline Soft Drinks Technology DevelopmentClosedGRD Proof of ConceptInnovate UKSoft drinks includes a range of beverages such as carbonated and diluted fruit juices, ready to drink teas, smoothies, and energy drinks. The UK sector is worth £15.0bn with volumes exceeding 14.2bn litres or 227 litres/capita for 2012. They are formulated with water, flavouring agents and sugars/sweeteners (raw sugar, granulated sugar, fructose and high fructose corn syrup). The mains water used in manufacturing soft drinks is filtered using an industry high-pressure process known as “reverse osmosis” (RO) to remove minerals and other constituents in the water to comply with mandatory Food and Drug Administration standards. This RO water is chemically aggressive, and has a pH of 6.1 (mildly acidic) and a Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) content of 0.3mg/l. Once formulated soft drinks have of pH 2-5 (strong acid). The sugars are added to counteract the salty and bitter tastes produced by the added flavours in the acidic RO water, so their primary function is to enhance taste. We have identified a gap in the market to develop an innovative “alkaline” soft drink technology based on alkaline water with natural flavours, free from added sugars. To achieve this, we need to develop alkaline water with “reserve alkalinity” and low TDS (<0.5mg/l) using alkaline earth elements.