Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development - Europe - Chinese Aspartame Firm Makes UK Move

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Breaking News on Food & Beverage Development - Europe

 

 

Chinese aspartame firm makes UK move

 

 

 

 

By Jess Halliday

 

05-Sep-2008 -

 

SinoSweet is stepping up its activities in the UK

this month with the opening of a new sales office

for aspartame, which it believes will help sales

of the sweetener in the face of rival sucralose.

 

SinoSweet claims to be the manufacturer of more

than 50 per cent of the aspartame made in China,

and to “enjoy major contracts with all of the world’s largest users”.

 

SinoSweet UK’s managing director Richard Stead

said that the Chinese firm believes it will be

able to provide the UK market with a

“cost-effective, full flavour, alternative to sucralose”.

 

The aspartame will be supplied directly from

China and stocks will be held in the UK.

 

Stead told FoodNavigator.com supermarkets have

removed aspartame from own brands. However,

because the own brands market share is not huge,

there has been only a small loss for aspartame

and overall there has been continued growth in its use.

 

He added: “The changes to own brands have not

necessarily been successful, the taste and so

forth has not necessarily improved.”

 

Stead said price is also an issue as aspartame

costs about £10 per kilo, while sucralose costs

£100 per kilo, although about a third less

sucralose can be used compared to aspartame.

 

The two market leaders in the world aspartame

market are Ajinomoto and NutraSweet. Both operate on a global basis.

 

But Stead added: “Ajinomoto have not had a

dominant market share in the UK for many years so

we have the chance of maintaining sales and

stealing more business from other Chinese producers.

 

“We already have a lower price (compared to

Ajinomoto) and we offer stocks held here in the UK.”

 

“The UK market for aspartame is probably 1500

tonnes (annual demand) and we would expect that we would achieve 50 per cent.”

 

Nonetheless, SinoSweet is not the only Chinese

sweetener firm to lay a claim to the UK sweetener

scene this year. Niutang announced in July that

it is also opening an office there, in a bid to

expand its share in aspartame, sucralose and

folic acid in the important strategic base.

 

Market analysts have noted over the last few

years that aspartame, although still the most

widely used of the intense sweetener, is

increasingly being replaced by sucralose.

 

According to UK-based Leatherhead Food

International, aspartame has suffered as a result

of fears over its safety; however, the science as

it stands today does not support the purported

link with cancer and the European Food Safety

Authority (EFSA) last year reasserted its view

that there is no evidence of ill effects.

 

In a recent report, Leatherhead estimated that

the global annual market volume of aspartame is

around 17,000 tonnes, and its value is US$637.

 

Data from Mintel’s Global New Products Database

indicates that the number of new products

containing aspartame launched in Europe has

dropped consistently over the last three years,

from 746 listed in 2005, to 700 in 2006, to 663 in 2007.

 

Sucralose use, on the other hand, looks to be

moving in the opposite direction. Mintel listed

134 new products containing sucralose in Europe

in 2005, rising to 150 in 2006, to 234 in 2007.

 

Angus Flood, director of international sales at

marketing at Fusion Nutraceuticals, which this

year launched its sucralose product in the UK,

told FoodNavigator.com recently that he believes

manufacturers are opting against aspartame in new

launches as they do not want to have to reformulate further down the line.

 

Already there is a move towards retailers

removing artificial additives from their private

label products. (Most notably Asda has condemned

aspartame as a ‘nasty’ on product labels,

incurring a lawsuit filing from Ajinomoto, which

along with NutraSweet is one of the two leading suppliers in the world).

 

Flood believes that the next step will be for

retailers to request manufacturers of branded

food products to take parallel measures - or

indeed to require aspartame-free products if they

want them to be stocked on shelves.

 

However Stead said he does not believe it will

get to the point where supermarkets would refuse

to stock major brands because they contain aspartame.

 

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More information on deadly aspartame,

www.mpwhi.com, www.dorway.com and www.wnho.net

Aspartame Toxicity Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame