The latest food and beverage industry news and trend analysis

Tate & Lyle PLC, a global leader in ingredient solutions, and Manus, a bioalternatives scale-up platform, have announced the launch of Yume™, a new ingredient brand operating under their established joint venture, The Sweetener Alliance.

The launch marks a significant commercial milestone for the partnership, announced exactly a year ago, introducing Yume™ M Stevia Sweetener as its inaugural product. The new brand is positioned to disrupt the sugar-reduction market by combining advanced industrial biotechnology with a highly secure, localised supply chain.

US-Based Bioconversion

For food and beverage manufacturers, a primary value driver of the Yume™ M Stevia launch is its production infrastructure. The ingredient is manufactured at Manus’ BioFacility in Augusta, Georgia, which the company states is currently the only large-scale stevia bioconversion site in the U.S.

This "all-Americas" supply chain is engineered to address the food industry's growing vulnerability to global logistics disruptions. By localising the biomanufacturing of Reb M—the most highly sought-after, sugar-like molecule in the stevia leaf—the partnership offers end-to-end traceability and insulated supply security for North and South American customers.

Nick Hampton, CEO of Tate & Lyle, highlighted the strategic timing of the launch: "The Sweetener Alliance... is a clear example of Tate & Lyle’s science-driven, solutions-focused approach at work. Our partnership accelerates the growth of ingredients that meet society’s evolving nutrition needs and industry’s growing need for security of supply."

The Technology: Scaling Premium Sweetness

Reb M (Rebaudioside M) is prized for its clean, sugar-like taste profile, lacking the bitter aftertaste associated with older stevia generations. However, it exists only in minute quantities within the traditional stevia leaf, making it historically expensive to extract at scale.

Manus overcomes this bottleneck by utilising proprietary bioconversion technology, translating next-generation industrial biotechnology into a cost-competitive ingredient.

“Yume™ brings together nature’s promise and Manus’ biomanufacturing capability to deliver a new standard in sweetness,” said Ajikumar “Aji” Parayil, Founder and CEO of Manus. "Partnering with Tate & Lyle helps us accelerate global adoption by combining Manus’ bioalternative products, scale-up platform, and supply-chain traceability with Tate & Lyle’s formulation expertise and market access."

Science Made Approachable

In a departure from highly technical B2B ingredient marketing, the Yume™ brand, derived from the Japanese word for "dream", is deliberately positioned as an optimistic, approachable identity.

Abigail Storms, Vice President Global Platform, Sweeteners and Fibres at Tate & Lyle, noted that the branding is designed to feel "effortlessly enjoyable" while remaining grounded in deep science. This strategic brand expression aims to instil confidence in food formulators and product developers looking to execute clean-label sugar reduction without compromising on sensory performance or scale.