High-Intensity Sweeteners Look To Blends to Drive Growth

11 December 2000 00:00  [Source: ICB Americas]

By Cynthia Challener

Growth in the high-intensity sweeteners (HIS) market is relatively slow, and HIS producers are looking to new blends rather than new product development to help boost sales.

US consumption of HIS was between 15,000 and 16,000 metric tons in 1999 for a value $600 million, according to Menlo Park, Calif.-based SRI Consulting, with annual growth of 2 percent. In Western Europe, consumption was 13,100 metric tons or $233 million and in Japan, HIS consumption was 3,065 metric tons, according to Laszlo Somogyi, a food industry consultant based in California. In 1999, the global potent sweeteners market accounted for the equivalent of 13 million tons of sugar, with saccharin accounting for 69 percent of the market, aspartame 21 percent, cyclamate 5 percent, and all others the remaining 5 percent, according to Gilbert Levin, president and CEO of Biospherics Incorporated, a Beltsville, Md.-based manufacturer.

Mr. Somogyi suggests that the HIS area will see the strongest growth in newer products--acesulfame K (aceK) and sucralose, and perhaps alitame and neotame if they receive approval by Food and Drug Administration. Mr. Somogyi made his comments at Intertech's Natural and High-Intensity Sweeteners Conference held in October. He sees products based on blends of two or more sweeteners as a way of meeting consumer demand and providing potential market growth. Lyn Nabors, executive vice-president of the Calorie Control Council, agrees that many new products will be blends of two or three HIS and/or nutritive sweeteners such as polyols.

Aspartame, formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine, was introduced in 1981 by the NurtaSweet Company, which remains the world's largest producer. Earlier this year, Monsanto Company, now a subsidiary of Pharmacia Corporation, sold its sweetener ingredients business, including the NutraSweet brand, to J.W. Childs Equity Partners II LP for $440 million in cash. It also sold its equity interest in two European companies, NutraSweet AG and Euro-Aspartame SA to Ajinomoto for $67 million. These moves followed the $570 million sales of its tabletop sweetener business to Merisant Company.

At the time of the sale, NutraSweet was developing a next-generation HIS, neotame, which is based on derivatives of L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine. The product is 40 times sweeter than aspartame and 8,000 times sweeter than sugar with no added calories and is currently under FDA review. The current petition before the FDA is for neotame's use as a general purpose sweetener, and Calorie approval may come as early as next year.

Saccharin and cyclamate are two products receiving new life. In June, the National Institutes of Health removed saccharin from its list of carcinogens. FDA is considering a petition to reapprove cyclamate for use in the US. FDA banned the use of cyclamate in 1970 after evidence suggested it caused cancer.

Sucralose is the new HIS offered by McNeil Specialty Products under the trade name Splenda. In September, McNeil introduced its tabletop version of Splenda.

The company recently built a manufacturing facility to produce sucralose in McIntosh, Ala., which is expected to be fully operational in the near future. McNeil says it is evaluating possible Splenda line extensions as well as functional food opportunities.

AceK is manufactured by Nutrinova GmbH, Celenese's food ingredients business, under the trade name Sunett. It is 200 times sweeter than table sugar and was first approved in the US in 1988 for dry uses and in 1998 for soft drinks. Nutrinova has developed and promoted a "Sunett Multi Sweetener Concept" that uses the synergistic effect obtained when aceK is used with a series of caloric and non-caloric sweeteners.

Nutrinova says it has sufficient production capacity to meet AceK demand. It recently invested in Sherbrooke Capital Health and Wellness Fund to support new nutritional companies and settled a patent dispute with Dolcre, a South African food ingredients supplier, which agreed to stop importing AceK from China.

A fairly new entrant to the sweetener market is tagatose, a simple hexose sugar. The product possesses the same bulk as table sugar with 92 percent of its sweetness and 1.5 calories/gram, says Mr. Levin of Biospherics. Tagatose has received GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status for nonfood applications, such as toothpaste, mouthwash and cosmetics, and as a sweetener in pharmaceuticals for humans and animals. GRAS determination for use of tagatose in foods is pending and is expected before the end of the year.

Biospherics discovered and patented the tagatose product and licensed the rights for the use of tagatose in foods to MD Foods Ingredients, which has since merged into Arla Foods. Biospherics retains all other rights, including the use of tagatose as a drug. It is being investigated for treating both Type II and Type I diabetes, hemophilia and anemia.

Mr. Levin does not see tagatose as a direct competitor with existing HIS products because its main applications will be in products that need the bulk of sugar, such as in cakes, pies and ice cream, and not in traditional applications such as diet sodas. He says tagatose may give traditional HIS manufacturers the opportunity to grow the stagnant diet soda market. Arla Foods has found that minor quantities of tagatose used in conjunction with traditional HIS products significantly improves the taste of diet soft drinks.

Biospherics is evaluating whether or not to build a tagatose production facility for material to be used in non-food applications. Mr. Levin expects Arla Foods will also construct a plant once GRAS status is achieved for tagatose. New erythritol and other polyols are being developed as sweeteners, but he says that tagatose has a better taste and has the advantage of already being included in test products by major food producers.

Alitame, which is produced by Danisco, is approved in a limited number of countries under the brand name Aclame. It is formed from the amino acids L-aspartic acid and D-alanine and a novel amine and is 2,000 times sweeter than sugar. Danisco is pursuing approvals for the product in Europe and North America, says Mika Koivistoinen, business director at Danisco.

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