PepsiCo has started using sweet taste modifiers from Senomyx in Mug Root Beer and Manzanita Sol

27-Aug-2015 - Last updated on 28-Aug-2015 at 15:17 GMT

Sweetmyx 617, a novel sweet taste modifier developed by flavor innovator Senomyx, is being used in PepsiCo brands Manzanita Sol nationally and Mug Root Beer in two US test markets, the company has confirmed.

Sweetmyx 617 - which is FEMA GRAS - can enable significant reductions of both high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and beet/cane sugar (sucrose) in a variety of applications including carbonated soft drinks, and can be used as part of a flavor system in a range of non-alcoholic beverages including carbonated soft drinks, sports drinks, coffee and tea products, and beverage concentrates.

It can also be used with alcoholic beverages and a variety of foods including baked goods, cereals, dairy products, confectionery products, snack foods, and condiments.

Building on work by scientists who have successfully cloned human taste receptors for sweet, bitter and umami tastes, San Diego-based Senomyx uses high-throughput biological screening techniques to evaluate millions of molecules to identify which substances bind to specific taste receptors.

Senomyx has two partners on its sweet taste program: PepsiCo has exclusive rights to use new flavor ingredients and natural high intensity sweeteners worldwide in non-alcoholic beverages; while Firmenich has rights to commercialize new flavor ingredients for food product categories and alcoholic beverages, with exclusive rights to use Sweetmyx S617 until March 2018.