Wet Starch Operator

Ingredion Inc., Shiru ink partnership. 04.06.2026 WESTCHESTER, ILL. - Shiru and Ingredion Inc. are developing prebiotics derived from perceived-as-natural sources to promote healthier microbiomes, according to the companies. Under the new partnership, the companies will create a research and development program that will be powered by Berkeley, Calif.-based Shiru's artificial intelligence discovery platform. "As consumer expectations rise, food companies need new ways to move faster and innovate smarter," said Michael Leonard, chief innovation officer at Ingredion. "Shiru helps us discover better natural ingredients more quickly so we can help our customers deliver new products at a pace the market expects." Within Shiru's platform, the company houses more than 77 million perceived-as-natural functional protein ingredient sequences that are catalogued and analyzed, according to Shiru. "We have broken the mold on how ingredient discovery is done," said Jasmin Hume, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of Shiru. "Disrupting the speed at which we can identify high-performance natural proteins has opened the floodgates for healthy, targeted nutrition. "What once took a team of 50 scientists a decade and a healthy dose of serendipity, we can now do strategically and efficiently in months. Pairing that capability with Ingredion's scale and customer relationships creates a direct path from discovery to market." Ingredion is just one of the many companies to partner with Shiru. GreenLab partnered with Shiru to commercialize food proteins using Greenlab's Corn expression system; Ajinomoto Health & Nutrition tapped Shiru to develop and commercialize sweet proteins for beverages and specialty products; Puratos Group and Shiru worked together to evaluate and develop a next-generation egg replacement; and CP Kelco partnered with Shiru to develop plant-based proteins using precision fermentation technology. Get better food industry search results. Adding us tells Google to prioritize Food Business News stories.

Ingredion wants to double production at plant in Brazil with corn as alternative to sugar. In an interview with Bloomberg Línea, the president of the American giant in Brazil, Luis Miguel Garzon, explains the rationale behind the plan to expand polyol production to meet demand for less sugar and make the country an export base for Latin America March 25, 2026 | 12:52 PM Bloomberg Línea - American giant Ingredion (INGR), which operates in developing solutions for the food and personal care industry, intends to double the production capacity of polyols from its plant in Mogi Guaçu (SP). The expansion, exclusively anticipated to Bloomberg Línea, is part of the company's plan to anticipate growing demand for products with lower calorie content and glycemic index, according to Ingredion's president in Brazil, Luis Miguel Garzon. The company's bet involves using increasingly larger volumes of corn as the basis for producing polyols, carbohydrates used as low-calorie sweeteners with lower glycemic impact. "We are expanding capacity to meet and anticipate an increase in demand from consumers seeking healthier products, with reduced sugar and lower calorie contribution," said Garzon to Bloomberg Línea. This comes at a time when, on one hand, consumers are more demanding in seeking ingredient lists and their quantities on labels, with greater attention to products with less sugar. On the other hand, the industry is moving to meet this demand, seeking alternatives that allow reformulating products without compromising texture and, especially, taste. Ingredion's initiative also repositions the Brazilian operation as an export platform for Latin America, in a context where the company seeks to advance in higher value-added solutions, according to the executive. At the plant, sorbitol will now represent 67% of polyol production, while liquid maltitol accounts for the remaining 33%. The company did not disclose the investment amount but informed that the expansion should increase the line's capacity at the São Paulo unit by 100%, focusing on these two ingredients - currently used in categories ranging from confectionery and bakery to personal care. According to the company, this is the largest investment in the country in the last 14 years, made with own resources. Brazil at the center. The strategy in Brazil involves facilitated access to raw materials, which translates into lower costs for the operation, explains the executive. Corn, the main basis for polyols, is supplied mainly by states like Mato Grosso and Paraná, which concentrate national production. "Brazil has scale, quality of raw materials and capacity to meet growing demand. That's why our investments are planned for the long term here," said Garzon. "With local supply, we reduce risks and gain capacity to guarantee availability, efficiency in deliveries and quality in all processes," he added. With the expansion, the country becomes the company's only polyol production base in Latin America and can help reduce the region's import dependence, currently concentrated mainly in Asia. From Brazil, the company intends to serve markets such as Mexico, the Andean region (Colombia, Peru and Ecuador) and the Southern Cone (Argentina, Chile and Uruguay), leveraging its already established industrial network. Today, the Brazilian operation accounts for about US$550 million in revenue, within a total of US$2.5 billion in Latin America. Global performance. In 2025, Ingredion recorded net revenue of US$7.2 billion, a 3% decline compared to the previous year, while adjusted operating profit rose to US$1.028 billion, from US$1.016 billion. The margin advanced from 24.1% to 25.3% during the period, according to the latest financial statement released by the company. About 70% of the company's global revenue comes from the food and beverage industry, while 10% is linked to animal nutrition, including pet food and pet care, and the remaining 20% to other industries, explains the executive. According to Garzon, the company organizes its operations into four major regions: United States and Canada, Latin America, EMEA - which includes Europe, Middle East and Africa - and Asia-Pacific. Of the company's 43 factories, nine are in Latin America. The repositioning has allowed expanding margins even in an environment of pressured volumes. Last year, there was a volume decline in different regions, including Latin America, impacted by lower demand in segments such as confectionery and paper. Still, the Latin American operation maintained high profitability. The food and industrial ingredients segment in the region recorded a record operating margin of 21.1%, sustained by efficiency gains, industrial reorganization and long-term contracts with clients. The expansion in Mogi Guaçu occurs just over a year after the closure of the Alcântara unit in Rio de Janeiro, which produced powdered mannitol, used in pharmaceutical and confectionery applications. "The company reevaluated the business from the perspective of cost competitiveness and logistical positioning, seeking greater efficiency and proximity to clients," stated the executive about the plant closure. In Brazil, the company still has three factories in total: one in Mogi Guaçu, São Paulo; one in Cabo de Santo Agostinho, Pernambuco; and another in Balsa Nova, Paraná. Raw material. Facilitated access to raw materials, especially corn, of which Brazil is the third largest global producer, also supports this strategy. The company uses the grain in producing polyols, carbohydrates known as "sugar alcohols," applied in products with low or no sugar content. Rice, potato, sugarcane and beet sugar are other sources that can be used in producing these ingredients. Polyols, such as sorbitol and maltitol, are used by the industry not only to reduce sugar, but also to maintain essential product characteristics like texture, stability and shelf life. They appear in a wide range of applications, from sugar-free chocolates and candies to bakery products and oral health items. "The market transformation is linked to the search for healthier alternatives, without losing taste and functionality," said Garzon.