Sweet Appeal™ Natural Products Announces First Commercial Sale of Xylitol from New-State-of-the-Art Fermentation Facility - PRNewswire

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CHICAGO, Nov. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sweet Appeal Natural Products LLC ("Sweet Appeal"), a joint venture between Harbin Yimei Bioengineering Technology Co, LTD ("Yimei") and zuChem Inc., officially announces first commercial sale of xylitol from a new state-of-the art fermentation facility.

"We are extremely excited to bring this new xylitol product to market," said Bob Gonzalez, President of Sweet Appeal. "Sweet Appeal Xylitol offers the market the first natural product and has the cost advantages of China combined with an incredible new technology along with Western quality and business practices. Customer anticipation and commitment has been tremendous."

Xylitol, present in nature at low concentrations, is a low calorie sweetener most frequently used in gum and candies. Before Sweet Appeal, xylitol was made by the chemical hydrogenation of xylose, a by-product of the sulfite pulping process. Sweet Appeal combines a new, natural, fermentation process with corn cobs from local farmers to make the first natural, sustainable xylitol.

Xylitol has been shown to be actively beneficial for dental health, significantly reducing the occurrence of dental caries with regular use. It has also been shown to reduce the incidence of ear and upper respiratory infections and can be used as a diabetic sweetener.

Yimei, the sole Asian manufacturer for the new bioprocess and has recently completed construction of a state-of-the art manufacturing plant to specifically produce bio-based xylitol.

"We are excited to announce that the world's first bio-process xylitol plant is now operational," said Liqun Yu PhD, President of Yimei. "Production of xylitol by the current chemical hydrogenation methods involves multiple steps, it is not environmentally friendly and safe, and the cost is growing with new regulations, forcing many manufacturers to cut production. Our new fermentation plant overcomes these restrictions and has been designed so that we can rapidly expand to meet customer needs."

The new process was originally developed by scientists at zuChem, Inc. in collaboration with researchers at the United States Department of Agriculture and the University of Illinois.

"This beauty of the new fermentation process is that it is not only more sustainable and natural than the existing chemical process, but has better economics as well,
said David Demirjian, CEO of zuChem, Inc. "We fully expect it to fully supplant the decades-old chemical methods in the near future."

All product produced at Yimei is sold worldwide exclusively through Sweet Appeal and its distribution partners. Interested customers should contact Bob Gonzalez at [email protected].

About Sweet Appeal Natural Products LLC

Sweet Appeal was formed to combine the highest levels of technology, quality, and operational efficiency from the United States of America with the abundant natural raw materials, reduced capital costs and plentiful skilled labor of China to offer high quality natural products, at the best value available from anywhere in the world, with the service and business practices of the West. Sweet Appeal is committed to the highest levels of environmental/ecological sustainability, management, safety and quality systems. These core principals combined with the outstanding value of our products makes Sweet Appeal Natural Products a leading supplier of xylitol and offers its customers a secure, stable, high quality supply to serve as a foundation to develop and offer exciting consumer products. Sweet Appeal is located in Naperville, Illinois. For more information please visit www.sweet-appeal.com email [email protected].

About Harbin Yimei Bioengineering Technology Co Ltd

Yimei was formed to use newly developing, cutting edge bioprocessing technologies enabling transformational costs, to develop, build and operate new manufacturing processes and facilities for the production of food and nutritional ingredients meeting Western quality standards and business practices leveraging the abundant raw materials and low capital and labor costs of China. For information on Yimei contact Liqun Yu at [email protected].

About zuChem Inc.

zuChem develops sustainable and renewable bioprocesses to produce unique carbohydrates for human health and nutrition. The Company's proprietary technology platform allows it to produce a variety of specialty sweeteners and polyols by fermentation. zuChem is located in Peoria, Illinois. For more information on zuChem please visit www.zuchem.com or e-mail [email protected].

Funding for the new xylitol process was provided in part by the Biotechnology Research and Development Corporation, the US Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation.

SOURCE Sweet Appeal Natural Products LLC