GAYLE DE MARIA
Agro Food Industry hi Tech / TKS Publisher

During my visit to Vitafoods exhibition I met Catherine Correal, ambassador of FedePanela, and had an interesting exchange of information and opinions on a natural sweetener called Panela. This meeting was followed by an in depth literature analysis of this functional food and in order to gain more information on it, we decided to interview an expert on Panela, Walter Jaffe, director of Panela monitor, supported by Catherine Correal.

COULD YOU MAKE A DESCRIPTION OF THE COMPOSITION OF PANELA?
Panela is unrefined, non-centrifugal sugar (NCS), a natural nutritional sweetener. The concentrated product of sugarcane juice (Saccharum officinarum L.), Panela is a natural product produced by the boiling and drying of sugarcane juice allowing for the retention of the essential constituents of sugar cane including: trace minerals, vitamins, amino acids, protein and antioxidants. Panela is a valued traditional foodstuff in many sugarcane producing countries in Latin America, Caribbean, Asia and Africa.

Although published data on Panela composition is relatively scarce and the range of values for components is large, reflecting different cane variet ...
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