New Zealand-based fruit juice maker BioVittoria has signed a five-year strategic partnership with UK-listed sweetener company Tate & Lyle to launch a calorie-free ingredient.
Tate & Lyle now has a 12% equity stake in BioVittoria and the exclusive global marketing and distribution rights for BioVittoria’s monk fruit (pictured), to be sold in the US under the PureFruit brand. The stake is separate to the company’s corporate venturing fund, Tate & Lyle Ventures, while New Zealand-based venture capital firm Endeavor Capital is BioVittoria’s largest shareholder with about a 28% stake.
Monk fruit is also known as luo han guo and when its pulp is steeped in hot water it releases a calorie-free sweetening ingredient about 200 times sweeter than sugar. Monk fruit extract was passed in January last year by the US Food & Drug Administration as generally recognized as safe.
David Thorrold, chief executive of BioVittoria, said: "[Tate & Lyle has] both the resources and food and beverage relationships to accelerate the adoption of this unique natural ingredient."
Karl Kramer, president of innovation and commercial development at Tate & Lyle, added: "BioVittoria is a leader in the innovation and development of this great-tasting natural fruit-based product, and has made significant investment in the monk fruit supply chain and processing to enable us to bring it to the market.
"In addition to its great taste, PureFruit enables a ‘sweetened with fruit extract’ label claim, which our research shows is extremely appealing to consumers."