Monsanto Files Petition for New Sweetener

Monsanto Co. today has filed a petition with the FDA for approval of a new, no calorie sweetener called neotame.

"We've begun the regulatory process by petitioning for neotame's use in tabletop sweetener products," said Nick Rosa, president of Monsanto's nutrition and consumer business unit. "By the end of 1998, we plan to petition FDA to approve neotame as a general purpose sweetener, and we'll make submissions to other world areas soon thereafter."

General use approval in the U.S. would permit neotame to be used as a sweetening ingredient in any food or beverage product sold in the U.S. market.

Neotame has an excellent taste profile when compared to sugar, but is about 8,000 times sweeter than sugar.

Neotame is the culmination of a comprehensive, 16-year R&D effort to identify the next generation of high intensity sweeteners after aspartame. Aspartame was discovered by Monsanto's Searle unit and launched in 1981 as NutraSweet brand sweetener.

When asked to compare neotame to aspartame, Monsanto communications director Nancy Nevin said, "Compositionally it begins with aspartame, but a simple enhancement to the dipeptide base of aspartame uniquely and markedly changes its sweetness. It is 40 times sweeter than aspartame."

Monsanto's nutrition and consumer sector, co-headquartered in Chicago and St. Louis, manufactures and markets a variety of food ingredients, including NutraSweet brand sweetener in various forms, and a global portfolio of branded consumer sweeteners, including Equal, Canderel and NutraSweet tabletop sweeteners.