10/22/21, 2:17 PM

Bonumose breaks ground on Hershey-funded production and R&D facility | Food DiveDIVE BRIEF

Bonumose breaks ground onHershey-funded production
and R&D facility
Published Oct. 21, 2021
Megan Poinski
Senior Reporter

Dive Brief:Rare sugar maker Bonumose is partnering with Hershey toexpand into a new $27.7 million facility for R&D andmanufacturing near Charlottesville, Virginia. The facility isexpected to create 64 new jobs.
Bonumose will use the facility to research new rare sugars forsnacking and confections, as well as work to create reducedsugar confections for Hershey. In February, the candy makerpartnered with sweetener company ASR Group to co-lead anequity investment in Bonumose.
Half of consumers who are 24 and older would like to reduce
their sugar intake, according to a study from FONA
International. But, according to IRI data cited by Hershey inFebruary, only 6% of candy, mint and gum sales come fromproducts that could be defined as "better-for-you."

Dive Insight:
Earlier this year, Hershey laid out an ambitious plan to expand andgrow its better-for-you candy platform. The company has said it
believes that if about a fifth of all candy sales went towardhttps://www.fooddive.com/news/bonumose-breaks-ground-on-hershey-funded-production-and-rd-facility/608624/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=…

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Bonumose breaks ground on Hershey-funded production and R&D facility | Food Dive

healthier options, that segment could increase its annual revenue
anywhere between $500 million and $1 billion.
The partnership with Bonumose is extending Hershey'scommitment to that plan. In a blog post, Amy Preston, Hershey's
senior manager of R&D regulatory, nutrition and agile innovation,wrote that the Bonumose facility is critical to advancing thecompany's work with rare sugars, but it is only a piece of its efforts.
Hershey, she said, is working to support development andaccessibility of rare sugars through a multi-prong approach.
"Our efforts include focusing R&D capabilities on initiatives suchas recipe development and technology as well as advocating to theFDA for labeling exemptions in order to help us make more[better-for-you] options a reality with the use of rare sugars," shewrote.
Many of the sweets in Hershey's current zero sugar lineup use
sugar alcohols as their sweetener. While these sweeteners are often
naturally occurring, they still can have high calorie counts and canalso be difficult for some consumers to digest.
Bonumose specializes in using enzymes to convert starches into
tagatose, a naturally occurring rare sugar, which the company says
is 90% as sweet as sugar, but is low-calorie and does not promote
tooth decay. The company also uses its enzymatic processes to try
to make other rare sugars at scale. Bonumose CEO Ed Rogers told
Food Navigator that the company, whose mission is to makehealthier sweeteners affordable, would be ready to produce tagaose
at some sort of scale early next year.
Bonumose's mission — and its products — fit in with another one
of Hershey's goals: lobbying the FDA to exempt these rare sugars
from being called out on food labels as sugars. Because of the way
the rare sugar allulose is metabolized, FDA has ruled it does nothttps://www.fooddive.com/news/bonumose-breaks-ground-on-hershey-funded-production-and-rd-facility/608624/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=…

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Bonumose breaks ground on Hershey-funded production and R&D facility | Food Divehave to be labeled as a sugar. Preston said in her blog post that
Hershey will work to gain the same type of exemption for tagatoseand other nontraditional natural sweeteners. If they are successful,she writes, more CPG companies would be interested in includingthese sweeteners in products.
Aside from the funding for Bonumose and the zero-sugar or bitesized version of its legacy products, Hershey has been moving
toward developing a strong better-for-you confectionery portfolio.
In May, the company acquired low-sugar candy brand Lily's, which
is known for its high-end chocolates. Hershey has also been toeing
into plant-based sweets, testing a new vegan chocolate bar called
Hershey's Oat Made in select markets.
This investment also gives Bonumose the facility it needs to workon developing new natural sweeteners. When Hershey laid out its
better-for-you plans in February, the company said part of its focus
would be on M&A. With Hershey's investment in Bonumose's
facility, it will be interesting to see if the tagatose produced isavailable to other CPG companies, or if the confectionery giant
decides to acquire Bonumose for its own purposes outright.

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