According to a recent survey, three-quarters of Americans are attempting to limit or avoid sugar in their diets, with 63% concerned with how much sugar they consume.1
Already, the industry has launched a swathe of new low or no-sugar products in response, as manufacturers try to meet global consumer demand for healthier, delicious options.2
But amid persistent challenges around the taste, texture and mouthfeel of these products, manufacturers are increasingly looking beyond conventional artificial and natural sweeteners to formulate alternatives.
Against this backdrop, a new cohort of ingredients known as ‘sweet proteins’ are starting to gain traction.
These naturally occurring proteins bind to taste receptors on the tongue, delivering a potent burst of sweetness, with a taste nearly identical to sucrose, and offering sweetness without adding sugars. They are, say proponents, an emerging option for manufacturers seeking to balance sweetness, health objectives and formulation requirements.
The science behind sweet proteins
Sweet proteins have been known about for decades, but it’s only more recently that advances in biotechnology have made them commercially viable to produce at scale.
Precision fermentation, for example, has moved the process on from extracting tiny quantities from plants, to using microorganisms to cultivate these proteins in carefully controlled conditions, and in much larger quantities.
Alongside sophisticated production methods, there are plenty of other factors driving the appeal.
One, sweet proteins are typically far more potent than either sucrose or more conventional sweeteners, requiring far smaller quantities per application and therefore making them far more efficient for manufacturers.
They also have a typically cleaner taste profile and mouthfeel than some artificial or even natural sweeteners, many of which can be bitter, cloying or even metallic, requiring additional flavors or ingredients to be used to mask these.
And third, because they are metabolised as proteins rather than carbohydrates, sweet proteins are not expected to produce the same glycaemic response as sugar. This may address the growing consumer demand to provide both sweetness and healthiness at once.
As a result, Future Market Insights estimates that the sweet proteins market could double in the next decade, up from $14.1m in 2025, to $30.8m in 2035.3 This estimate could be conservative, especially as sweet proteins begin substituting parts of the larger stevia and monk fruit markets.
Scaling up
A little more than a year after receiving FDA approval in the US, Mellia® Brazzein, developed by biotech firm Bestzyme, is one sweet protein making headway in the US market, having already been integrated into a number of functional drinks, including a sparkling water.
Found in the West African Oubli fruit, which has been consumed by locals for thousands of years, Brazzein was first isolated and reported by scientists in 1994, but – as with many sweet proteins – the opportunity for commercial scalability came much later, via precision fermentation techniques.
“We do not extract it from the fruit [as] the fruit is rare and cannot support big commercial scale,” explains Kevin Zhang, vice president of research & development department at Bestzyme. “This is why we use precision fermentation. We take the natural protein sequence, use standard microbial hosts (like fungi), and let them produce Brazzein in fermentation tanks.” Further downstream processing then takes place in a food-GMP plant, where the team filters out the cells, purifies the protein and dries it into a protein powder, reaching purities of up to 95% or higher depending on customer requirements.
The result is a white-yellow powder with “zero calories, zero sugar on nutrition label, no blood sugar spike, and [the need for a] very small dosage because it is hundreds to thousands of times sweeter,” he adds.
In fact, Mellia’s Brazzein is 600-20,000 times sweeter than sucrose by weight, requiring tiny quantities in comparison to more conventional sugar alternatives.
Take soda, where the sweet protein has a recommended dosage of just 60-100mg of Mellia Brazzein (standard tier) per liter, equivalent to 0.006-0.010% by weight. By contrast, the recommended dose for current sucrose alternatives is approximately 3-5%, or 30-50g of sugar per liter of soda.
Unlike synthetic sweeteners, as a natural protein, Brazzein can support clean label positioning, points out Zhang, owing to the fact it is a protein produced through precision fermentation rather than a synthetic sweetener. He also adds that it avoids the metallic or bitter aftertaste often associated with common natural sweeteners, like Stevia and Monk fruit.
“Its taste profile is very close to real sucrose,” explains Zhang, “no off-note and pure and clean without lingering which often occurs in some other sweeteners.”
This has been borne out in internal sensory panel tests and blind consumer tests, he points out, where Brazzein (or a combination of Brazzein with Stevia/monk fruit) consistently ranked higher in achieving a ‘clean, sweet taste’ compared to formulae using solely natural sweeteners.
The combination of Brazzein with common natural sweeteners like Stevia or monk fruit is an increasingly popular route for manufacturers, as a result.
“Feedback shows it reduces heavy reliance on stevia alone while fixing off-notes and elevating flavor,” says Zhang. “Mellia aims to make sweetness complete – serving as the last piece of the formulation puzzle for brands striving for clean-label sugar reduction without taste compromises.”
Operating as an application and formulation solutions provider rather than a pure ingredient vendor, Bestzyme recently supported a US beverage customer in reformulating and rolling out a commercial soda line across nationwide online and retail channels.
Designed for a GLP-1 era
Consumer demand for natural alternatives to sugar is only set to grow in the coming years, against a backdrop of diet and weight management increasingly shaped by GLP-1s, particularly in markets like the US.
Some 12% of US adults report taking a GLP-1 agonist drug, according to KFF Health Tracking poll data, while nearly a fifth (18%) have used one at some point.4
“They eat smaller meals and care much more about blood sugar, metabolic health and real nutrition,” says Zhang. “They want to avoid empty sugar calories, but they dislike chemical sweeteners and bitter stevia drinks.”
Zhang believes sweet proteins may be well suited to products targeting consumers seeking to reduce sugar intake while maintaining sweetness.
Early research is also exploring whether sweet proteins could have applications beyond sugar reduction. In preclinical dietary challenge models, Mellia Brazzein demonstrated potential to help buffer against excessive weight gain under high-calorie dietary conditions, according to the company.5
As a result, Bestzyme is positioning itself for significant growth.
This year, the company finished work on what’s thought to be the world’s first dedicated, automated production line for sweet proteins at its facility in Jinan, China. The 5,000-sq-metre site will produce over 100 tons of Brazzein annually – an output equivalent to 300,000 tons of sucrose in terms of sweetness, and that capacity is set to double within two years.
Though for now relatively niche compared to conventional sweeteners, as the production technology and commercial scalability underpinning sweet proteins become increasingly refined, these naturally derived sugar substitutes could prove to be the sweet spot manufacturers have been hunting for.
To find out more about Mellia Brazzein, visit Bestzyme.
References
- International Food Information Council. 2025 IFIC Food & Health Survey: The Full Report.
- Mintel. UK Attitudes towards Sugar and Sweeteners Consumer Report 2024.
- Future Market Insights. Sweet Protein Market.
- KFF. KFF Health Tracking Poll May 2024: The Public’s Use and Views of GLP-1 Drugs.
- Bestzyme. Mellia Brazzein product information and preclinical study summary.