Tate & Lyle PLC (Tate & Lyle), a global leader in ingredient solutions for healthier food and beverages, today announced the expansion of its collaboration with BioHarvest Sciences Inc. (BioHarvest), broadening the scope of their joint sweetener development programme to include multiple plant‑based sweetener molecules.
The expanded collaboration builds on the initial agreement signed in 2024 and reflects strong technical progress to date, as well as Tate & Lyle’s ambition to equip food and beverage manufacturers with a flexible toolkit of sweetening solutions that can be tailored to different formulation needs.
As customer requirements around taste, cost and labelling continue to evolve, no single sweetener can address all food and beverage category needs. Tate & Lyle’s approach focuses on developing complementary sweetening options that can be used independently or together – enabling product‑specific optimisation while supporting sugar and calorie reduction goals.
The collaboration draws on BioHarvest’s Botanical Synthesis™ platform, which supports the development of plant‑based, non‑GMO ingredients, reducing the industry’s reliance on traditional agricultural extraction for rare or hard‑to‑source botanicals. This approach aligns with Tate & Lyle’s focus on delivering ingredient innovation that balances performance, scalability and responsible sourcing considerations.
The partnership builds on Tate & Lyle’s long‑standing commitment to sugar and calorie reduction and its track record in sweetener innovation. The company’s heritage includes major industry milestones, from the discovery of sucralose in 1976, to the commercialisation at scale of allulose in 2015 and high‑purity bioconverted stevia Reb M in 2018.
Today, Tate & Lyle’s development pipeline is focused on advancing sweetening solutions that deliver great taste while supporting sugar and calorie reduction, helping customers meet evolving consumer expectations around health and wellbeing. This includes sweet ingredients that reduce sugar and calories and have the potential to support broader health and wellbeing needs.
A 2025 proprietary Tate & Lyle survey across seven global markets found that over half of respondents planned to reduce their sugar consumption in the following 12 months, with strong consumer interest in great‑tasting sweeteners derived from fruits and plants1. The intent to reduce sugar was greater than the intent to reduce calorie and fat consumption, showing how top of mind sugar reduction is for consumers.
Tate & Lyle’s innovation approach is informed by more than a decade of global research into consumer perceptions of ingredients. This ensures that considerations such as sensory performance, value creation and label acceptance are embedded into ingredient development from the outset.
Victoria Spadaro‑Grant, Chief Science and Innovation Officer at Tate & Lyle, said:
“Expanding the scope of our collaboration with BioHarvest to include multiple plant-based sweetener molecules reflects the technical progress achieved to date and the aim to further expand our broad toolbox of sweetening solutions. As we define what customers ultimately look for in next‑generation sweeteners — sugar‑like taste, solutions anchored in nature, reduced calories and responsible use of resources — it is clear that several unmet needs in the market today are unlikely to be addressed with a single sweetener.
“The flexibility from the expanded collaboration with BioHarvest is critical as customers seek food and beverage category‑specific solutions that balance taste, cost and labelling requirements, while supporting sugar and calorie reduction.
“This programme strengthens our innovation pipeline in a disciplined and efficient way and reinforces our commitment to advancing the future of sweetness through differentiated, science‑led solutions.”
Zaki Rakib, Chief Executive Officer of BioHarvest Sciences, added:
“Broadening the development programme demonstrates confidence in the versatility of our Botanical Synthesis™ platform and in the progress delivered through our collaboration with Tate & Lyle. Together, we are enabling access to differentiated, plant‑based sweetening solutions designed to support a range of sensory, application and economic requirements.”
1Tate & Lyle Proprietary Ingredient Tracker Research – 2025. Includes 7 Markets – US, Brazil, Germany, UK, UAE, China, and India; 1,000 respondents per market
