Friday, March 25, 2022

Conagen's 2 thaumatin protein natural sweeteners put table sugar in cold storage

KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 -- Food and beverages brands get two more tools for their sugar reduction toolkits as Conagen announced the successful scale-up production of two new high-intensity sweeteners, thaumatin I and thaumatin II.

According to a statement, the development will expand commercial partner Sweegen’s robust sugar reduction solutions of zero-sugar natural sweeteners.

“Conagen constantly improves its protein and peptide production platforms to generate more exciting new products,” said vice president of innovation at Conagen, Casey Lippmeier.

“In this case, the platform has been leveraged to make thaumatin by several innovative approaches, but under a significantly shorter R&D timeline.” 

Thaumatin is a group of proteins found in the fruits of the tropical plant Thaumatococcus danielli. Each protein, thaumatin I and thaumatin II, varies slightly in sweetness profiles.

Both proteins have been evaluated as 100,000 times sweeter than sugar on a molar basis and 3,000 times sweeter on a weight basis. 

The thaumatin proteins were developed from Conagen’s peptide production platform, which had previously been used for the scaled production of another peptide sweetener, brazzein.

The desire for natural sweeteners will drive the demand for fruit and plant-based sweeteners, such as thaumatin and stevia, respectively.

The main advantages to sweetening food and beverages with thaumatin are its familiarity and acceptance by consumers and the fact that it is approved for use in products by the majority of the countries.

Conagen is a product-focused, synthetic biology R&D company with large-scale manufacturing service capabilities. More details at www.conagen.com.

-- BERNAMA


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