Manus produces monk fruit sweetener in US

BOSTON — Manus has produced monk fruit sweetener at commercial scale through industrial biomanufacturing at its Georgia-based facility.

Monk fruit sweetener is a zero-calorie, non-glycemic sweetener that may be used in such applications as ready-to-drink beverages, dairy and plant-based alternatives, baked foods and confectionery, functional and nutritional products and foodservice.

“For decades, the world’s monk fruit has come only from China, leaving the category dependent on a single harvest and a single supply chain,” said Ajikumar “Aji” Parayil, founder and chief executive officer of Manus. “We have changed that. By producing it in America, at commercial scale, we give the food industry a second source it can rely on — and we turn monk fruit from a niche, premium ingredient into a practical workhorse for sugar reduction.”

The company produces its sweetener via fermentation at its Augusta BioFacility in Georgia.

“Producing a molecule as complex as mogroside V through fermentation requires more than 30 enzymatic steps within a single cell, and we have successfully engineered and scaled that process,” said Christine Santos, chief technology officer of Manus. “Using a fully water-based, solvent-free purification process, we have achieved an optimized mogroside profile that gives a clean, highly soluble sweetener with no bitter aftertaste. The result is an ingredient that is chemically identical to the mogrosides found in nature with the performance, consistency, scalability and supply reliability that food and beverage manufacturers require.”

In March, Tate & Lyle PLC and Manus launched a sweetener brand called Yume.

Yume’s first ingredient manufactured in the partnership was Yume M, a stevia-derived sweetener that also is produced at Manus’s Augusta BioFacility.