Tate & Lyle and BioHarvest Sciences have joined forces to develop plant-based molecules for healthier, sustainable and affordable food and beverage ingredients.

BioHarvest’s Botanical Synthesis platform produces plant-derived ingredients by growing targeted plant cells, 'which can mirror and magnify the phyto-nutrients contained in specific plants,' said the companies. This process delivers all benefits of the plant without having to grow the plant, and it enables scalable production of non-GMO ingredients with high nutritional value, using less land and water than traditional methods.

The partnership will focus on developing next-generation botanical sweeteners using plant-derived molecules. The sweeteners will deliver a sugar-like taste without aftertaste, providing affordable, sustainable options for healthier products.

Nick Hampton, chief executive of Tate & Lyle, commented:  “We are always looking to provide our customers with the latest innovation in the marketplace – this partnership with BioHarvest allows us to do just that.  Our open innovation programme is all about creating cutting-edge solutions for the food and beverage industry. By partnering with entrepreneurial innovators like BioHarvest, we aim to disrupt the future of food for the better.” 

Victoria Spadaro-Grant, Tate & Lyle’s chief science and innovation officer, said: “This partnership is very exciting for Tate & Lyle. BioHarvest provides the first and only fully validated industrial scale plant cell technology platform for production of plant metabolites. Initial exploration will focus on our sweetener platform, but our partnership also provides for expansion into other areas.” 

Ilan Sobel, CEO of BioHarvest Sciences, stated:  “We aspire to improve human wellness by availing our plant derived molecules to hundreds of millions of people and Tate & Lyle represents an ideal partner".

"Tate & Lyle is a global powerhouse in food ingredient innovation, and we expect that its regulatory and nutrition expertise, industry knowledge and complementary research initiatives will help expedite and commercialise the next generation of plant-based molecules developed through our Botanical Synthesis platform.” 

Yochi Hagay, CTO and co-founder of BioHarvest, added:  “This partnership forms a major milestone in the history of BioHarvest Sciences. It follows more than 15 years of intensive R&D and manufacturing scaling of our Botanical Synthesis technology process to the point that global innovators like Tate & Lyle can now leverage our capabilities to develop new plant-derived molecules to better meet consumer demand for healthier food and beverages.”

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