Bestzyme, a synthetic biology company under GenScript Biotech, said it has completed a dedicated automated smart production line for sweet proteins at its Jinan facility. The company said the line is the first of its kind and the first full-chain integration of research and development, mass production and application for sweet proteins. It is aimed at a problem the food and beverage industry has faced in cutting sugar without changing taste.
Dr. Bai Aixi, general manager of Bestzyme, said the difficulty lies not in removing sugar but in reproducing the taste of sucrose while taking out the calories and metabolic burden. The company's flagship product, Mellia Brazzein, is positioned as a component that blends with existing sweeteners such as stevia and monk fruit to round out sweetness. Bestzyme describes it as carrying a clean label and having no effect on blood sugar.
Brazzein is derived from the West African Oubli fruit and is thousands of times sweeter than sucrose, with no glycemic impact and no calories, according to the release. Low expression levels in hosts and the difficulty of separating and purifying it had kept it at laboratory scale, the company said, adding that it has worked on high-density fermentation using more than a decade of experience in industrial enzymes and biocatalysis. The Jinan site covers 5,000 square meters and runs an automated fermentation, purification and freeze-drying process. Bestzyme said the Mellia line will have capacity of more than 100 tons a year, equivalent in sweetness to 300,000 tons of sucrose, with the potential to double within two years.
In the United States, the company said Mellia was used by a sparkling water brand in a zero-sugar product that reached the market, and that the product is now moving into scale-up. Bestzyme also said the ingredient received a No Questions Letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in April 2025 confirming its GRAS status, and that regulatory work is under way in several other countries and regions. The release cites industry reports putting the global sweet protein market in the tens of millions in 2025.