Dutch juice major Prodalim has acquired Israeli food-tech startup Better Juice, whose enzymatic technology cuts fruit sugar by up to 80%. The deal reflects mounting consumer and regulatory pressure on sugar, intensified by the GLP-1 drug boom reshaping US beverage demand.
Israeli food-tech startup Better Juice has been acquired by Prodalim, a global juice and beverage solutions company, in a deal that lands squarely at the intersection of two pressures reshaping the drinks business: consumer sugar fatigue and the rise of GLP-1 drugs.
In its acquisition announcement, Prodalim said Better Juice brings proprietary enzymatic sugar-reduction technology into its portfolio and will support health-driven reformulation across beverages and adjacent food categories.
The conventional read on sugar reduction is that it usually means artificial sweeteners, sugar substitutes, or a reformulation trade-off that brands then have to explain to shoppers. Better Juice’s pitch is different. Its patented enzymatic process converts naturally occurring fruit sugars into non-digestible components such as dietary fibres, aiming to reduce sugar while preserving the fruit’s flavour, mouthfeel, and nutritional character.
Prodalim says the technology supports beverage innovation as well as harder-to-reformulate categories including dairy and confectionery. The company also said it plans to expand into the US market by adding a production line at its Winter Garden, Florida facility, with manufacturing expected to begin in the second half of 2026.
That makes the acquisition less of a niche food-tech deal and more of a signal about where beverage formulation is going. Juice has always had a health halo problem: it feels natural, but it can still carry a large sugar load. If Prodalim can scale Better Juice’s technology inside an existing ingredient and beverage platform, brands may get a cleaner route to lower-sugar fruit products without leaning as heavily on sweetener swaps.
In a LinkedIn announcement, Prodalim framed the deal as a response to rising regulatory and consumer pressure around sugar, saying brands are looking for ways to reduce sugar without compromising taste, texture, or authenticity. It also said the technology expands how the company can support customers across beverages, dairy, frozen desserts, and confectionery.
The consumer pressure is real enough. Sugar reduction has become one of the food industry’s defining reformulation challenges, especially as shoppers scrutinize both sugar content and artificial sweeteners. That creates a narrow lane for technologies that can reduce sugar while still sounding recognizably “food-like” on a label.
Then there is the GLP-1 effect. A 2025 KFF poll found that about 12% of US adults were currently taking a GLP-1 drug such as Ozempic or Wegovy, up from 18 months earlier. For beverage companies, that matters because the drugs are not just changing weight-loss medicine; they are changing appetite, cravings, and purchasing behaviour.
Food Dive, citing Bernstein research, reported that among daily drinkers of full-calorie soda, 33% of GLP-1 users had quit sugary soda entirely, while another third had decreased consumption. Among people who had drunk soda at least three times a week before taking GLP-1 drugs, as many as 77% reported cutting back or quitting entirely.
The public health backdrop helps explain why ingredient companies see sugar reduction as more than a passing trend. The CDC’s latest adult weight data found that 40.3% of US adults had obesity in August 2021 through August 2023, with another 31.7% classified as overweight. Separately, the CDC estimates that 12.0% of the US population has diabetes, diagnosed or undiagnosed.
The deal also fits Prodalim’s broader strategic shift. The company says it has reorganized into three divisions: juice solutions, specialty ingredients and solutions, and SOLOS, its de-alcoholisation platform. In other words, it is positioning itself less like a commodity juice supplier and more like an ingredient technology partner for brands trying to reformulate under pressure.
For the curiously conscious shopper, the takeaway is not that Better Juice will suddenly become a household name. It probably will not. The more important question is who controls the formulation playbook behind familiar products. If the Florida line begins manufacturing as planned in the second half of 2026, the next wave of lower-sugar juices, smoothies, fruit preparations, and fruit-based dairy products may arrive through brands consumers already know.
The change will not be driven by shoppers asking for enzymatic fibre conversion by name. It will be driven by a market where sugar is harder to defend, artificial sweeteners face their own scrutiny, and GLP-1 drugs are making old volume assumptions look less secure. In that market, Prodalim’s bet is simple: the future of beverages may belong less to companies that sell more sweetness and more to those that know how to take it out.
