Strategic Partnership for Next-Generation Natural Sweetening Solutions
BRAin AG, AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH and Roquette are the three founding members of the new consortium DOLCE to research and develop natural sweeteners.
The bioeconomy company BRAIN AG, the natural product specialist AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH and Roquette, global leader in specialty food ingredients from plant-based raw materials, have announced a strategic partnership under the form of a consortium by the name DOLCE.
The partners will jointly develop natural sweeteners and sweet taste enhancers with the goal to achieve sugar- and calorie reduction in a variety of food and beverages. These developments will benefit the global market and will address pressing needs in terms of sugar replacement.
The goal of the DOLCE consortium is to develop natural sweet taste enhancers and sweeteners for nutrition and improved food formulations.
“In the field of food and beverages, there is a high demand for natural sweet solutions, which help to make food formulations lower in calories,” says Thierry Marcel, executive vice president R&D at Roquette. “We are convinced that this DOLCE consortium will be a reference in the development of new sweetening solutions and will address a formidable and presently unmet market need for all natural sweetening alternatives.”
“These sweet solutions will open up new opportunities for different consumer goods markets and products”, states Dr Jürgen Eck, CEO of BRAIN.
This DOLCE alliance will enable to further bridge the gap between the discovery and development (BRAIN and AnalytiCon), formulation and production (Roquette) and marketing and sales (CPGCs) of novel sweet innovations into different food and beverages segments, creating new opportunities for consumer product goods companies in different fields.
A market worth over USD13bn
According to a report recently published on www.marketsandmarkets.com, the sugar substitutes market in 2015 is valued at USD13.26bn and is expected to reach USD16.53bn by 2020 (CAGR of 4.5%). In terms of volume, the market is projected to reach 17.03 million tons by 2020. There is a growing demand for new solutions for natural sweetening to mimic the taste of sugar in a healthier way.
The global market for high potency sweeteners in 2013 was calculated to be USD1.2bn according to a recent study of Credit Suisse. According to a study of Lux Research, sugar substitutes today account for 22% of the total sweeteners market, yet natural sweetener alternatives represent only 1%. Along with trends towards natural and healthy ingredients, these natural alternatives have the potential to replace between 2% and 25% of total sucrose across product categories like bakery and cereal, beverage, and confection.