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Ingredion opens Mexico allulose facility

Ingredion has opened its first allulose production plant in San Juan del Río, Mexico. At this location, 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, the company says, 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 by aligning Ingredion’s unique value proposition with the 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.”

“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 is said to taste and function like sucrose and is in the family of rare sugars. Allulose is absorbed by the body, but not metabolized, 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 are said to make allulose an ideal ingredient for formulators as they look for ways to reduce calories from sucrose in the products they develop. According to Ingredion´s Consumer Market Research conducted in 2016 74% of Mexicans believe it’s important to reduce their sugar consumption in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle.