Almendra Creates New Reb A Manufacturing Facility
09 Dec 2013 --- “Almendra’s new 10,000 m2 state-of-the-art sweetener production facility is ready for customer audit” says CEO, Inder Singh. Almendra’s annual capacity is large, adequate to serve any size of customer need and sufficient to supply stevia for billions of liters of beverage and tons of food products today. Its plant infrastructure is designed to produce much more tomorrow.
The company has received all of the necessary health and trade certificates and planning is underway for ISO 22000 and GFSI certification. Commercial batches of Steviose, the industry’s highest purity stevia extracts, including the highest in rebaudioside A, and most sugar--like in taste, are en route to customers for 2014 contract evaluations. When asked how the product has been received by the market, Mr. Singh described the response as “measured, but enthusiastic”.
He believes that customers have seen so many materials that have declared purities that are not verified by the JECFA method of analysis that they are taking a “wait and see approach, but” he added, “they will not be disappointed”.
Almendra’s approach to the market is simple, practical, and customer--focused. It is based on the conviction that reb A is the only commercially viable natural high potency sweetener in the foreseeable future. Their industry entry is with Steviose Reb A 100 with a minimum guaranteed reb A content of 99.5%. “It is still stevia, but formulators consistently tell us that it is the cleanest tasting. They tell us that it is the fastest in onset and lowest in licorice and bitter off-tastes.
This makes it easy for them to use. It is also the most manufacturing-friendly due to its excellent cold water solubility. Another important feature is its relatively high sweetening power compared to other products that contain up to 99% reb A. One wouldn’t expect it, based on the assay alone, but tasting is believing. Our proprietary process technology gives us perfect consistency from batch to batch. This contributes greatly to Almendra’s efficiency which enables us to offer competitive pricing on both Reb A 100 and our steviol glycoside blend offering, SG100.”
When asked about all of the news on REB D and other exotic rebaudiosides, Mr. Singh stated “While these molecules are interesting, we do not see the possibility of commercial viability from the perspective of costs of these products in the near term". Almendra is further differentiated from the field by its internal research and development pipeline focused on solving application problems and helping its customers innovate. “We have started in the right place with Reb A 100, we will progress and work diligently with our customers to achieve their objectives. Ultimately we will arrive at healthy, zero calorie solutions, maybe sooner than you think”, he said with a smile.
“Our company is new, but savvy, and our team is small but effective and well experienced in food innovation. We are actively and directly approaching customers and fine--tuning our technical and market objectives with their goals center stage.” The company is based in Singapore with manufacturing facility in Thailand and, applications and R&D in the United States. Sales offices are in the United States for the Americas and in France for EMEA.
