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Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition (AHN) North America is partnering with Shiru, a provider of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered protein solutions, to develop and commercialise sweet protein ingredients.
The partnership will combine AHN’s expertise in fermentation with Shiru’s AI-driven protein discovery capabilities to bring new, natural food and beverage ingredients to market.
Sweet proteins can replace sugar and other sweeteners in food and beverages without spiking blood sugar levels associated with long-term health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This is because, unlike sugar, they do not trigger insulin release, and are digested like any other dietary protein so are not harmful to the gut microbiome.
They can deliver up to 5,000 times more sweetness than sugar, offering the potential to replace 70-90% of sweetness provided by sugar in F&B products.
In a statement announcing the partnership, the companies said that several sweet proteins, derived from fruit and berries that grow near the equator, show ‘tremendous’ promise for sugar reduction and replacement, but face challenges related to onset/lingering taste effects and stability.
Aiming to overcome such challenges, Shiru will harness its AI-driven discovery platform, Flourish, to uncover additional natural, food-safe proteins not previously known to be sweet.
The partnership marks Shiru’s entrance into the sweet proteins category as it continues to expand its portfolio of novel protein solutions. Its protein discovery platform allows partners to rapidly identify and test functional proteins found in nature, cutting R&D and product development costs, and accelerating time to market.
Ryan Smith, chief growth officer and executive vice president at AHN, said: “Our partnership with Shiru is one of many examples of our approach to innovation”.
He added: “As collective industry leaders, we believe this partnership will position both of us to be on the cutting-edge of what’s next in functional ingredients, specifically in protein, an increasing category of interest for consumers. This partnership, and our balanced strengths, will allow us to identify natural proteins for use as sweeteners across numerous applications to meet the changing demands of the food industry and what consumers expect.”
In addition to its sweetener portfolio in the F&B sectors, AHN also offers fermentation-produced products across other flavour applications, including biopharmaceutical, sports and wellness nutrition, animal nutrition, nutraceutical, speciality and personal care, regenerative medicine and medical food industries.
Shiru’s founder and CEO, Jasmin Hume, commented on the partnership: “At Shiru we share Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition’s vision of eating well and living well. Together our companies are now using artificial intelligence to supercharge this mission, which we are very excited about. We are already identifying high-value, natural, scalable proteins for Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition’s brands which we know will positively impact human and planetary health alike.”
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership.
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