MANE and Arzeda team up to offer next-gen sugar reduction solutions to the food and beverage industry

Today, MANE enters into a strategic partnership with Arzeda, a pioneer in AI-driven protein design, to accelerate the commercialisation of new, high-performance sweetening solutions and meet global demand for natural sugar reduction.

MANE has entered into a new collaboration with Arzeda, based in Seattle, Washington, which developed ViaLeaf™ Reb M, a revolutionary process using Nobel Prize-winning technology.

This direct-from-leaf extract technology for stevia processing improves production efficiency for Reb M, unlocking broader adoption across the food and beverage markets.

This collaboration directly addresses one of the industry’s most pressing challenges: developing cost-effective, clean label, lower sugar products without compromising taste.

• Through this partnership, MANE strengthens its scientific and technological leadership by integrating Arzeda’s ViaLeaf technology.
• Arzeda leverages MANE’s global production capabilities, commercial reach, and expertise in flavour creation and taste modulation to accelerate the commercialisation of sweetener solutions.
• This new partnership addresses today’s reformulation challenges: natural, clean label, calorie reduction, and the rising pressure from public health regulations and sugar taxes.

Revolutionising Stevia: a major step forward in natural sweetening solutions

A central focus of the collaboration is Reb M, the most desirable steviol glycoside because of its clean, sugar-like taste and lack of bitterness.

Arzeda’s Intelligent Protein Design Technology™ enables the creation of highly efficient enzymes that have fundamentally disrupted the production cost structure of Reb M. Through this innovation, Reb M – produced by bioconversion of natural stevia leaf extract – becomes a significantly more affordable, scalable, and taste-optimised solution with strong sensory superiority, delivering major advantages:

• Sugar reduction in product formulations using Reb M
• No bitter aftertaste, unlike legacy stevia grades
• Natural origin, supporting clean-label positioning
• Favourable cost performance, opening new applications across food and beverage categories

Enhanced solutions for food and beverage innovation

The MANE and Arzeda collaboration will strengthen MANE’s sweetening and flavour modulation portfolio, focusing on reduced-sugar beverages, a priority category where taste performance is critical and influenced by consumer demand and sugar tax regulation.

The collaboration supports a streamlined approach to sweetness restoration through:

• Sweetener ingredients: Reb M and other optimised E960 natural-origin sweeteners
• Flavour modulating solutions and SENSE CAPTURE™ technologies, improving sweet perception and reducing off notes

Together, these technologies enable MANE’s technologists and flavourists to achieve significant sugar-reduction targets while developing high-sensory, quality products that meet consumer demand, a critical success factor in today's cost-effective market.

Samantha Mane, CEO of the MANE Group, stated: “Arzeda’s breakthrough with ViaLeaf Reb M represents a major step forward for natural sweetening solutions. By combining their scientific leadership with our taste expertise, we will accelerate the development of next-generation natural sweetening solutions. This will allow us to offer our customers innovative solutions for sugar reduction without compromising on taste, naturalness or cost.”

Alexandre Zanghellini, PhD, CEO of Arzeda, added: “By combining MANE’s expertise in flavour creation and taste modulation with Arzeda’s Intelligent Protein Design Technology™, the two companies unite complementary capabilities to scale ViaLeaf Reb M and deliver cost-efficient, high-performance sweetener solutions for today’s natural reformulation challenges.”