Manus’ bioalternatives platform has brought Monk Fruit Sweetener, grown until now only in China to commercial scale in the U.S. – a resilient, domestic source for sugar reduction at scale
The monk fruit sweetener is produced at commercial scale through industrial biomanufacturing. Made by fermentation at the company’s Augusta BioFacility in Georgia, it turns a scarce, harvest-dependent ingredient – grown until now only in China – into a reliable, domestically produced source of natural, zero-calorie sweetness, and brings the clean taste of monk fruit within reach of mainstream food and beverage products for the first time.
Manus debuted the new sweetener at IFT FIRST 2026 event in Chicago in July.
Ajikumar “Aji” Parayil, Founder and CEO of Manus said, “For decades, the world’s monk fruit has come only from China, leaving the category dependent on a single harvest and a single supply chain. We have changed that. By producing it in America, at commercial scale, we give the food industry a second source it can rely on – and we turn monk fruit from a niche, premium ingredient into a practical workhorse for sugar reduction. It is the latest breakthrough from a proven technology and scale-up platform for bioalternatives, reinventing how the world’s most valuable molecules are made, across sweeteners, flavors, and the building blocks of essential medicines.”
Prior to this, the world’s entire supply of monk fruit is grown in a single region of southern China, Guangxi, and is subject to harvest cycles, price swings, and quality variation – concentrating a fast-growing sweetener in one country and leaving brands exposed. Manus offers a different path: a second, fully independent, U.S.-based supply route with consistent quality, predictable pricing, and proximity to end markets – offering real diversification and optionality beyond a single-country, agricultural model. Because it is produced by fermentation rather than agriculture, it also carries a far smaller environmental footprint: normalized to equivalent sweetness, lifecycle analysis indicates Manus’ Monk Fruit Sweetener uses roughly 6.7% of the land and water that cane sugar requires.
Manus’ Monk Fruit Sweetener is a zero-calorie, non-glycemic sweetener that is about 350 times sweeter than sugar, with an optimized mogroside profile that delivers clean, rounded sweetness and no bitter aftertaste. Its solubility and stability suit applications across RTD beverages, dairy and plant-based alternatives, baked goods and confectionery, functional and nutritional products, and food service.
The ingredient has also successfully completed FEMA GRAS review (FEMA No. 5108), with an FDA GRAS Notification for broader food and beverage use in progress.
Christine Santos, Chief Technology Officer of Manus said, “Using a fully water-based, solvent-free purification process, we have achieved an optimized mogroside profile that gives a clean, highly soluble sweetener with no bitter aftertaste. The result is an ingredient that is chemically identical to the mogrosides found in nature with the performance, consistency, scalability, and supply reliability that food and beverage manufacturers require.”
Manus’ Monk Fruit Sweetener complements the company’s all-Americas stevia Reb M; due to their synergistic sensory properties, the 2 ingredients can be combined to achieve a rounder, more sugar-like taste than either delivers alone.
