IFT First 2024 live: Sweegen highlights natural flavor innovation with new Tastecode line

17 Jul 2024 --- Sweegen is presenting its reduced-sugar natural flavor technologies, Tastecode, at IFT First 2024, which is ongoing this week in Chicago, US. With beverages like Lavender Haze and Hydration Oasis delivering sweetness with a 60% sugar reduction compared to conventional full-sugar products, the company aims to “unlock the problem of great taste in better-for-you products” for brands with the line.

Food Ingredients First catches up with Casey McCormick, head of global innovation at Sweegen, at the show to learn more about the Tastecode Natural Flavors, the potential of brazzein and what these can offer brands in a better-for-you food or beverage system.

Sweegen’s Tastecode line
“Over the past few years, we’ve learned that cracking the equation of great taste goes beyond having a superior sweetener system.”

“We leverage our expertise and biotechnology for nature-based ingredients to extend that platform into making natural flavor solutions that can complement our sugar reduction technologies but, most importantly, can be very specific on solving the taste equation for manufacturers with precision tools.”

The global sweetness and flavor player has debuted “novel and targeted” natural flavors for taste modulation to help deliver an experience that mimics sugar but is better for you.

“They are simple designs meant to take care of basic taste problems that sugar has always been used to solve in the past. For instance, if your product was too astringent, you would add a little more sugar to it. Or if your product had the bitterness from caffeine, you would add more sugar to it.”

“We know that some manufacturers are hesitant to use additive non-nutritive sweeteners. We wanted to offer them a line of technology to solve their taste problem and delight their consumers while still meeting their labeling needs.”

The Tastecode taste optimization tools are natural flavors based on Sweegen’s proprietary molecules, and while the company offers some sweet quality modulation in the range, “it is much broader to address the entire spectrum of taste challenges that we know manufacturers are trying to solve for consumers.”

Sweegen-Sensegen collaboration
Sweegen has also debuted its strategic collaboration with Sensegen, its sister company and biotechnology-based solution provider in taste, smell and beauty. While Sweegen provides taste optimization and sugar reduction technologies, Sensegen offers bio-based tonal flavors like red fruit and citrus.

“This allows us to develop a simple yet elegant design for our customers in collaboration, such that we are not only delighting them in terms of the taste experience, but we’re also passing along cost-effective total solutions at an actionable price.”

Inflation has pushed manufacturers to reorient pricing strategies, especially in the F&B sector, where manufacturers work with different vendors along the value chain. As consumers feel the pinch of rising costs, brands are unwilling to pass the price on to them, notes McCormick. “But it doesn’t mean they’re not aspirational. They want better-for-you, better-tasting products.”

Tapping into brazzein
Sweegen uses sweet proteins like brazzein and Thaumatin in its solutions. Brazzein is 500–2,000 times sweeter than sugar, powering its Sweetensify Flavors Collection.

The California-based company sees an opportunity to turn brazzein into a fully-fledged complementary sweetener in an actively growing marketplace.The Sweegen team at IFT First 2024 in Chicago, US (Image credit: Sweegen).

“We are pursuing this very aggressively because our material is not just novel but incredibly pure. It requires us to do a very high level of diligence, which we expect to complete by the year’s end.”

Brazzein also has “tremendous” synergy with Sweegen’s Bestevia products, which could allow brands to expand their low-calorie food and beverage products economically.

In terms of consumer demand, this can meet the growing interest in stevia in the US, where obesity continues to rise. McCormick highlights that F&B companies need to start solving the problem “instead of outsourcing the solution to pharmaceutical companies.”

“While consumers might be hesitant about expanding further into synthetics, the people who will consume synthetic sweeteners have already chosen to do so. To reach that next round of consumers, you need to be in the nature-based sweetener space,” he concludes.

Sweegen plans to submit applications for approval of its brazzein sweetener from the US FDA and the European Food Safety Authority, and is expecting GRAS self-affirmation for the product by the end of this year.

By Anvisha Manral, with live reporting from Missy Green in Chicago, US