An updated agreement will extend the relationship between SweeGen, a nature-based sweetener company, and Ingredion Incorporated, a global provider of ingredient solutions, on a non-exclusive basis for three more years, while improving the ease of doing business with customers.
 
Ingredion and SweeGen were the first suppliers to commercialize Reb M by bioconversion in early 2017. Reb M is a non-caloric stevia sweetener that provides sweetness with a clean, sugar-like taste and enables food and beverage manufacturers to reduce sugar, without sacrificing taste, the companies said. SweeGen’s unique production process starts with the stevia leaf and uses a patented bioconversion process to achieve high purity, clean-tasting Reb M and Reb D. Together, SweeGen and Ingredion have successfully helped customers formulate and launch innovative, no and low-sugar products in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and Australia.
 
“The sugar reduction trend is shaping the way manufacturers formulate and extending our partnership with SweeGen allows Ingredion to continue to provide solutions which unlock the reduction in sugar to meet customer and consumer demands,” said Nate Yates, global sugar reduction platform lead, Ingredion. “Ingredion and SweeGen can now operate in a different structure enabling an enhanced customer experience.”
 
“Ingredion has been a global distributor for SweeGen and a great partner to support the commercialization of our next-generation stevia sweeteners,” said Katharina Pueller, director, natural sweetener business, SweeGen. “We are pleased to extend this partnership to continue to leverage each partner’s strengths, while eliminating unnecessary exclusivity barriers to execution.”