Molecular farming firm pioneers natural alternative to sugar as health fears reach tipping point

23 Aug 2023 --- US-based molecular farming company Elo Life Systems (Elo) is addressing the country’s sugar health crisis with the development of a plant-based, natural sweetener, which provides antioxidants from more than 20 easy-to-grow fruits and vegetables, such as watermelon and cucumber.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Americans eat and drink too many added sugars, which can contribute to health problems such as weight gain and obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. 

While other businesses practice molecular farming with commodity crops such as soy or wheat, Elo’s advances lie in the types of plants and high number of genes it uses. It employs machine learning and data analytics to work with up to a dozen genes in more complex plants to create more intricate ingredients.

Food Ingredients First sits down with Elo’s CEO Todd Rands to understand what the firm’s sweetener discovery could mean for health and nutrition in the US and how it plans to pioneer molecular-farmed products after recently securing US$24.5M Series A funding.Elo produces intricate ingredients by gene-editing fruits and vegetables.

How can your natural sweetener help tackle the sugar health crisis?
Rands: Reducing excess sugar in diets is the most impactful action we can take to improve human health – healthcare costs attributed to sugar consumption alone total US$4 trillion every year globally. Our sweetener empowers F&B companies to reduce sugar and artificial sweeteners while improving nutrition in everyday products. It’s 300x sweeter than sugar, with zero calories, and has a clean taste profile that outperforms other sweeteners.

Is your natural sweetener ready for market?
Rands: Since it comes from nature, we will grow the supply of our sweetener over the next two seasons, with an expected launch in 2025. In parallel, we’re working with F&B companies to develop formulations for use in their products. 

Are molecular-farmed sweeteners a cost-effective alternative to sugar?
Rands: Given the sweetness intensity of our sweetener and the amounts needed, it will ultimately cost less than sugar to achieve the same level of sweetness in the final product. This cost-effectiveness is enabled by our unique molecular farming platform, which produces our sweetener as a co-product in an existing crop system.

Despite the cheapness of sugar, consumers don’t consider sugar to be a viable option due to its negative health impacts. It’s driving them to look for healthier, more natural options. In fact, more than 66% identify sugar as a health issue, and 72% are actively reducing their sugar intake. And sugar content is the top item consumers look for on ingredient labels. Ultimately, we need to give them the sweetness they crave without increasing the cost of the foods they enjoy. 

What products is your natural sweetener applicable to?
Rands: Our sweetener can be used in thousands of everyday food products that consumers love, from beverages to snacks, cereals, yogurt and ice cream. CPG companies will use our sweetener to reduce sugar, artificial sweeteners and poor-performing natural sweeteners in their products. We’ve produced our sweetener in more than 20 different fruits and vegetables to determine the most efficient biofactory crop. Our sweetener will come in two formats: a liquid form from watermelon juice and a powder form from sugar beets. Elo’s specialism lies in the types of plants and high number of genes it works with.

What are the environmental benefits of your business?
Rands: Elo specializes in creating sought-after ingredients in plants that are difficult to harvest from natural sources and cannot be synthesized through artificial or other techniques, such as precision fermentation. By using crops as biofactories, we enable more local, commercial-scale production of these ingredients while reducing their cost and environmental footprint. With sugar beets, we’re able to produce the sweetener as a co-product in an existing crop system, ensuring we don’t require additional land and other resources to produce our sweetener.

How will you use the US$24.5M Series A funding?
Rands: We’re using the funding to develop new ingredients via molecular farming, including our plant-based sweetener, novel proteins and high-value flavors and bioactives. We’re also focused on efforts to protect and increase the productivity of staple crops, such as our work with Dole on the creation of a fungal-resistant banana to save the fruit from extinction.

How are machine learning and data analytics helping you?
Rands: We use sophisticated data analytics and algorithms to design and optimize the complex metabolic pathways that produce the sweetener in nature. Then we add those pathways to crops that allow us to affordably scale production.

What does your natural sweetener mean for the future of food?
Rands: Elo’s sweetener will be a major catalyst in the effort to eliminate excess sugar from our diets, improving human health and reducing the societal burden associated with chronic diseases. Our sweetener is just the first of many natural products we plan to launch using our molecular farming platform. 

By Joshua Poole