Company: Sweegen

Websites: www.sweegen.com

Ingredient Snapshot: Sweegen’s footprint in Europe became stronger after the European Union Commission published its approval of Sweegen’s non-GMO Signature Bestevia Rebaudioside M (Reb M) for use in food and beverages.

The approval of Sweegen’s Signature Bestevia Reb M leads the future of wellness in food and drink in Europe. Brands in Europe now have access to this stevia sweetener, which broadens the toolkit for sugar alternatives to reimagine food and drink, opening new doors for creating healthy products for consumers.

“Sweegen’s Signature Bestevia Reb M approval is a celebration of health and wellness for product developers and consumers alike,” said Luca Giannone, SVP of Sales. “This is just one of our many milestones in Europe to transform products for having a positive and lasting impact on our ever-evolving health.”

Consumers are increasingly aware of the need to reduce sugar in their diets for better health. Yet, when they are making decisions for purchasing food and beverages, they will ultimately select the brand with the best taste. Therefore, tackling the toughest sugar reduction challenges is a priority for brands as taste is the reason for repeat purchases.

In its further commitment to Europe, Sweegen has aligned the availability of its Reb M with commercializing the high-purity sweetener at its manufacturing facility in Europe. The facility is open in Europe for helping food and beverage manufacturers with rapid production and low cost-in-use sugar reduction solutions.

To compliment the approval of Reb M, Sweegen invested in designing and building its Innovation Studio in Reading, England, near London. The studio opened its doors in January 2021 with a full applications team to collaborate with food and beverage manufacturers on exploring the entire consumer landscape to understand what trends are driving consumer behavior, and then provide inspirational ingredients to represent those trend drivers.

“Our rapid innovation in application development enables our customer-focused solutions to help manufacturers create great-tasting, clean, natural, plant-based, sustainable products that meet today’s end-consumer needs and desires,” said Giannone.

Around the world, Sweegen’s Innovation Studios are open globally: Southern California, Mexico City, Reading (London), and very soon in Singapore. These studios will leverage local tastes and knowledge while serving as creative centers to explore and discover product innovations motivated by consumer trends and regional tastes.

“Sweegen’s global regulatory mission is the hallmark of opening new sugar reduction opportunities to manufacturers and brands for replacing sugar in foods and beverages, nutritional products, and many other market products world-wide,” said Hadi Omrani, director of regulatory affairs. “Europe is an important region in our global regulatory vision as we continually forge the future of wellness in food and drink around the world.”

Sweegen offers brands cost-effective and rapid innovation for sugar reduction solutions for beverage, dairy, savory, and bakery with its Bestevia Taste Solutions for Europe.

Sweegen is the first company to receive the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) panel’s safety status for any steviol glycoside produced by alternative and sustainable technologies. To achieve high purity clean-tasting stevia leaf sweeteners, Sweegen uses a bioconversion process starting with the stevia leaf. This process enabled Sweegen to obtain the Non-GMO Project verification for its Signature Bestevia stevia sweeteners in the U.S. market.

Bestevia Reb M was commercialized in 2017 and has already been approved in many regions around the world.