Augusta’s Manus factory, whose green technology makes a sweetener that closely mirrors sugar, has partnered with a company that once produced half of the world’s sugar.
The new corporate relationship with Tate & Lyle is expected to expand the global reach of the local facility that is North America’s largest bioproducer of a stevia extract called Reb M.
Both companies call the new strategic partnership the Natural Sweetener Alliance.
“We are delighted to partner with Manus and to combine our extensive capabilities and expertise to provide customers with access to high-quality bioconverted stevia Reb, sourced and manufactured in the Americas,” said Tate & Lyle CEO Nick Hampton.
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Henry Tate and Abram Lyle merged their successful British sugar refineries together in 1921, which gave the new company control over about 50% of the world’s sugar production. Tate & Lyle quit the sugar refining business in 2010, but it continued to focus on making ingredients and additives that enhance taste and texture in many manufactured foods and beverages worldwide.
That, according to both companies, makes the partnership with Manus such a logical fit.
Manus reopened Augusta’s old NutraSweet plant in 2019. Two years later, it introduced NutraSweet Natural, a zero-calorie stevia sweetener made using a smaller environmental footprint.
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Most stevia manufacturers use Rebaudioside A, or Reb A, a molecule extracted from the South American stevia plant. While Reb A is sweet, it also leaves an aftertaste described as bitter.
Reb M is much less common in stevia, but its highly pure taste profile is much closer to actual sugar and is considered safe for people with diabetes.
But few manufacturers produce Reb M because of the expensive, time-consuming production challenges in teasing the molecule out of stevia leaves on a large scale.
Manus Bio developed a bioconversion process that allows sustainable production of Reb M, which Manus CEO Ajikumar Parayil has called “the Holy Grail of noncaloric, high-intensity natural sweeteners.”
Tate & Lyle considered Manus’ leaf-to-finished-product supply chain security as an important aspect of their new partnership.
(This story was updated because an earlier version included an inaccuracy.)
