Roquette and Bonumose team up to enhance scalability of tagatose, a rare sugar with 92% of the sweetness of sugar, and 38% of the calories

Roquette—a leading player in starches and starch-based sweeteners—has signed a cooperation agreement with Virginia-based startup Bonumose to “enhance the scalability” of tagatose, a low-glycemic, tooth-friendly rare sugar with 92% of the sweetness of regular sugar, but only 38% of the calories.

An attractive alternative to sucrose as it has bulk and sugar-like sweetness, tagatose is found naturally in a variety of foods, but is produced on a commercial scale via a complex process typically starting with lactose (milk sugar) that gives it a price tag beyond the reach of most food manufacturers.

Bonumose, which has patented an alternative low-cost production method it claims could catapult tagatose from a niche to a mainstream sweetener, uses maltodextrin as its source material, deploying a multi-step enzymatic conversion process which it argues significantly increases yields​​. According to CEO Ed Rogers, the process “is scalable at existing starch sweetener production sites.”

He added: “A starch refiner relationship [with Roquette] is important because tagatose is made using the same value chain: starch, as well as equipment common to starch refining and starch-based sweetener production. Having a realistic path forward for industrial-scale, global, expandable production of tagatose is something that several large food & beverage brands have informed us would be favorably viewed by them.

“Therefore, we are putting the pieces in place for larger-scale production without the need to raise significant new capital for capex. We are excited to collaborate with Roquette, given their engineering prowess, and multiple market routes.”

Anne Hirsch, head of sugar management at Roquette, added: “Our large-scale starch sweetener production expertise can significantly enhance processing efficiency post-enzymatic conversion.”

Tagatose: 92% of the sweetness of sugar, with 38% of the calories

Bonumose, which has high-profile backers including Hershey and sugar refiner ASR Group, started manufacturing tagatose at a demo-scale plant in Virginia in late 2022, said Jim Kappas, VP specialty ingredients at ASR Group, which started distributing the product in spring 2023.

“We’ve seen strong and broad interest, which waned somewhat following the FDA’s decision to label tagatose as added sugar,” he told AgFunderNews. “In recent months, however, there has been a resurgence of interest, in part due to shortcomings of other alternatives, and also due to Bonumose obtaining Nutra Strong prebiotic certification in March 2024.

“Categories of strong interest include the following, roughly in order of degree of interest: beverages, chocolates, snacks, confections, and retail, both tabletop and baking mixes. The key benefits driving interest are tagatose’s low glycemic index, color formation [it undergoes the Mailliard reaction], ease of handling [tagatose is free-flowing, due to its low hygroscopicity], and prebiotic effect [it increases short chain fatty acid production in the gut].”

According to Rogers at Bonumose, studies in humans and experimental models suggest that tagatose is fermented in the large intestine, where it increases levels of beneficial bacteria,​​ and stimulates the production of beneficial short-chain fatty acids such as butyrate​.

FDA: The caloric contribution of tagatose ‘is significantly higher than allulose’​

The FDA has acknowledged that Bonumose has provided evidence supporting the benefits of tagatose in multiple areas from improved glycemic control and prebiotic effects to reduced risk of dental caries. However, it has refused to exempt tagatose from ‘added sugar’ labeling​​ on food labels, despite granting such a request for fellow rare sugar allulose in spring 2019, a decision blasted by Rogers as “contradictory and​ illogical.”

In a 2020 request for comment ​​on whether it should rethink its approach to labeling sugars metabolized differently than sucrose, noted Rogers, the FDA said it was aware that rare sugars such as tagatose do not have the “same effects in the body as traditional sugars.”

However, in a 2022 letter responding to Bonumose’s citizen petition​​ calling for tagatose to be treated like allulose on food labels, the FDA ultimately concluded that they should be treated differently because the caloric contribution of tagatose (which has 1.5cals/g) “is significantly higher” than that of allulose (which has 0.4cals/gram).

Bonumose responded in 2023 with a lawsuit* arguing that forcing manufacturers to label tagatose as ‘added sugar’ compels misleading speech and violates their first amendment rights.

According to the complaint, Bonumose is seeking an injunction compelling the FDA to exempt tagatose from mandatory ‘added sugars’ labeling on food products and/or permit alternate disclosures for ‘beneficial sugars.’

“We think tagatose demand will grow with a change in labeling, so it is not misleadingly labeled as added sugar,” said Rogers. “This is already proving out in Chile, where tagatose was recently exempted from sugars labeling.”

* The case is Bonumose vs The FDA, FDA commissioner Dr. Robert Calif, and the USA. 1:23-cv-00645 filed in the District of Columbia in March 2023.

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