Ingredion opens allulose plant in Mexico
Ingredion, a provider of ingredient solutions to diversified industries, opened its first allulose production plant in San Juan del Río, Mexico in November.
At the new site, the company will manufacture the sweetener Astraea Allulose, which will be marketed and sold across the Americas by Ingredion. In addition to licensing certain allulose-related intellectual property to Ingredion, Matsutani will market and sell Astraea Allulose across most of Asia. Astraea Allulose will enable food and beverage manufacturers across the Americas to reduce calories from sucrose and other caloric sweeteners in a wide range of products, including beverages, dairy, bakery and confectionery items.
“We are advancing our specialties strategy with the unique value proposition offered by allulose for sugar reduction by aligning with one of the most important food and beverage trends shaping our industry and impacting our customers,” said Ingredion’s president and chief executive officer Jim Zallie. “We look forward to working with Matsutani and bringing further innovation to the marketplace that meets the evolving needs of today’s global consumers.”
“At Ingredion, we are innovating with ingredients that consumers are looking for,” said Rob Ritchie, president and director general, Ingredion México. “Today, we are pleased to also welcome the second Ingredion Idea Labs to Mexico, where in collaboration with our scientists and culinary teams, we can deliver innovative ideas and solutions to food and beverage manufacturers.”
During the construction phase, the allulose plant created nearly 600 direct and indirect jobs.
“Matsutani has been developing, researching and fine-tuning a new generation of sugars, including Astraea Allulose, for more than 15 years,” said Yoshinobu Matsutani, executive vice president, Matsutani.
“Matsutani is the company with the most clinical studies and research regarding this ingredient. We are excited about opening this plant and we see now a reality where Ingredion will produce Astraea Allulose through our collaboration and it will be a great solution for the food and beverage industries, both of which look for this sweetener all over the American continent.”
Astraea Allulose is a sweetener that tastes and functions like sucrose and is in the family of rare sugars. Allulose is absorbed by the body, but not metabolised, making it nearly calorie-free. Allulose is one of the many types of monosaccharides that exist in nature in small quantities and can be found in certain fruits, including figs, raisins and jackfruit.
Allulose has a texture and performance behavior similar to sucrose providing comparable bulk, sweetness and functionality (e.g., browning, freeze point depression). These properties make allulose an ideal ingredient for formulators as they look for ways to reduce calories from sucrose in the products they develop.
Astraea Allulose has been approved by Cofepris as a non-caloric sweetener that can be used in different food and beverage segments, and is exempted from being included in the nutrition facts. It’s 70% as sweet as sugar; helps producers reduce sucrose in their recipes and develop calorie-reduced foods and beverages to meet the growing consumer demand.
