Oobli, a protein ingredient supplier, announced this month the company received a letter of no-questions from the FDA for its sweet protein, monellin. The no-questions letter means the novel protein has earned FDA Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status. GRAS foods are not considered food additives and therefore do not require premarket approval from the FDA. With this no-questions letter, Oobli will start announcing partnerships with food brands in the new year including with Grupo Bimbo.
Additionally, the company added Heather Malenshek and Geoffrey Duyk MD, PhD to its Board of Directors to expand its tech leadership and expertise.
Monellin is a protein from the serendipity berry in West Africa with a sweetness approximately 2000 times sweeter than sucrose. Alternative sweeteners are expected to reach a market size of $14.71 billion by 2029 as food companies continue to invest in alternatives to sugar for lower calorie foods. There has also been a demand for a non-carbohydrate artificial sweetener. Aspartame and Sucralose have come under fire for health concerns and protein in general is having a trendy moment.
“Customers are really trying to have a healthier sweetener,” CEO of Oobli, Ali Wing said.
Monellin is just 4 calories per gram and because of its high concentration of sweetness, only very little is needed to sweeten everything from drinks to baked goods. The company said plant-based sweet proteins “are a cost-effective sweetener option that have the potential to replace more than 70% of sugar in the majority of food and beverages like sodas, baked goods, candies and more.”
But Wing clarifies that monellin is not a good source of protein for this same reason.
Naturally occurring monellin has a licorice aftertaste and is destroyed above 122 Fahrenheit. These limitations have made it difficult to use in food processing. However, according to Wing, Oobli’s precision fermentation process produces a pure monellin protein that has none of these limitations. The company has even added the protein to dairy and pasteurized it.
Wing expects food companies to use the protein as a sweetener in everything from bars, cakes, cookies, drink mixes and dairy products.
“We haven’t met a food category that we can’t be a solution for,” she said.
Monellin becomes the second no-questions letter Oobli received this year following one for another sweet protein from a native West African berry, Brazzein.