Baïa Food plans dried miracle berry scale-up following favorable EFSA opinion

11 Jun 2021 --- The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published a scientific opinion that concludes the dried miracle berry (DMB) is safe for use in food supplements at the maximum intake level of 0.7 g per day for adults, excluding pregnant and lactating women.

Baïa Food is the Spanish food-tech start-up behind the EU Novel Food application on the dried fruits of Synsepalum dulcificum. The plant is known for its antioxidant-packed fruits called miracle berries. 

Miraculin, the bioactive glycoprotein found in the berry pulp, causes sour and acidic foods subsequently consumed to taste sweet. Miracle berries therefore provide a natural dietary solution to help consumers reduce their intake of sugar and artificial sweeteners. 

Loan Bensadon, co-CEO of Baïa Food, tells NutritionInsight the favorable EFSA opinion marks the “end of a phase in our roadmap,” which was focused on overcoming the regulatory barriers and gaining market exclusivity. 

Baïa Food will begin a new commercial phase once the EU novel food authorization is published in the Official Journal of the European Union in upcoming months. 

Starting from scratch
Bensadon and his Baïa Food team identified the “untapped potential” of miracle berries as a natural sugar-reduction strategy back in 2013. 

“Angels don’t invest in regulatory uncertainty; that is something we learned along the way,” says Bensadon.Miracle berries can help introduce new sources of foods to consumers without sacrificing good taste. “The sweetness elicited by miraculin is one of the most similar to table sugar and that is the real benefit. After consuming the novel food, eating plain yogurt or sipping kombucha, for example, is much tastier,” co-founder Guillermo Milans del Bosch also shares with NutritionInsight. 

“As soon as we understood the magnitude of the endeavor, which would require huge amounts of time and resources, with little market protection, we decided to start creating a strong network of stakeholders in Ghana.” 

By promoting the sustainable cultivation of Synsepalum dulcificum, the company set out to establish large enough volumes of raw material for future authorization.

Traceability triumphs
Baïa Food monitors its miracle berries, sourced from smallholder farms in Ghana, all across the supply chain via a proprietary pesticide-free processing method.

“We produce and source our fruits in the country of origin where the botanical species originated. We promote multi-cropping cultivation methods, planting the shrubs in combination with other crops such as coconut, papaya or mango trees to foster biodiversity in the area,” Bensadon explains.

With facilities using solar energy and biogas, the fruit processing is conducted in Ghana and continued in Europe. They adhere to safety standards from International Featured Standards, British Retail Consortium and Good Manufacturing Practices. 

Baïa Food further collaborates with the national government to comply with the provisions of the Nagoya Protocol and the Access and Benefit Sharing initiative to share part of its benefits with local communities and promote rural development while increasing food security. 

Innova Market Insights crowned “Transparency Triumphs” as its top F&B trend for 2021, highlighting how traceability is increasing to meet evolving ethical and environmental benchmarks. 

The market researcher notes that six in ten global consumers are interested in learning more about where foods come from. 

To guarantee future authorization, Baïa Food began creating a “strong network of stakeholders” in Ghana, while promoting sustainable cultivation of Synsepalum dulcificum.Investor uncertainties
Despite aligning with prominent industry trends, Baïa Food initially struggled severely with rallying support and investments. 

“When we started with this venture, our entourage tried to make us drop this idea of engaging in a novel food application process. We had a very hard time raising our first investment after we ran out of personal savings,” Milans del Bosch recalls. 

However, Baïa Food managed to score the support of Swiss-based HPW AG and Capsa Vida, a venture corporate of leading Spanish dairy company Capsa Food. These “impact investors” helped finance Baïa Food’s trips to Ghana and conduct initial R&D to obtain a minimum viable product.

This provided the proof of concept needed to secure more funding from Spanish public institutions, such as the Centre for the Development of Industrial Technology, but also the EU’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programs. The start-up also has the support of the GIZ [Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit], a German cooperation agency. 

Potential DMB applications
Baïa Food is not yet selling DMB, but currently offers a wide e-commerce portfolio of clean label plant-based functional foods and instant dry beverages, addressing health issues such as stress, lack of sleep, immunity and inflammation. 

The start-up has mainly focused on the Spanish market and experienced high growth during the pandemic. With its new novel food as a flagship product, Baïa Food is now planning to scale up internationally.

Bensadon notes the plant was initially considered “Vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature but has a “Least Concern” status today.To be effective, DMB has to be dissolved on the tongue before consuming any acidic food or beverage, as miraculin must bind first to the sweet receptors. 

Therefore, Baïa Food will offer orally dissolving dosage forms that act directly on the taste buds, such as fast-melt tablets, and other innovative formulations that improve the efficacy of miraculin. 

Confident about the future 
The EFSA opinion allows Baïa Food to bring its efforts on developing a new supply chain in West Africa from zero and demonstrating food safety to a close.

“We are opening a new chapter that has a radically different vision: Developing the market and the applications around the miracle berry. We have a competitive advantage in the EU and abroad, and we plan to use it,” Milans del Bosch concludes. 

By Anni Schleicher