http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1164
artificial sweetener sales soar, stevia and tagatose available: Murray
2005.03.31 rmforall

"New products that have recently come to the market that contain neotame
include, Kroger's fruit juice and certain powdered ice-teas. Neotame is also
now used in some Detour energy bars and certain confectionary products, such
as Wrigley Chewing Gum in Australia, Roman Meal Bread line and Herr's
pretzels in the US.

"Reducing the amount of high fructose corn syrup in a beverage reduces the
number of calories and the cost," said Petray, adding that generally 25-30
percent of the HFCS is replaced by neotame."

At a typical neotame concentration of 20 ppm ( milligrams per liter =
milligrams per kilogram ), a liter (about 3 cans) of diet soda would release
1.6 mg methanol, enough to trigger migraine and other symptoms in some
people sensitized to aspartame and other methanol, formaldehyde, and folic
acid sources.

If a third of the methanol remains in the body as the inevitable cumulative
toxic products, formaldehyde and formic acid, that would be 0.5 mg daily.

If neotame is used in iced tea to replace 30% of the high fructose corn
syrup, then a liter would give about 7 mg neotame, supplying 0.5 mg
methanol, and about 1.5 mg formaldehyde. The EPA limit for formaldehyde in
drinking water is 1 mg per liter.

If any aspartame reactors notice that they have the typical symptoms from
these low levels of neotame, please give a detailed report to our groups:
short history, amount of product used, and the time course of symptoms.

It is certain that high levels of aspartame use, above 2 liters daily
for months and years, must lead to chronic formaldehyde-formic acid
toxicity, since 11% of aspartame (1,120 mg in 2L diet soda, 5.6 12-oz
cans) is 123 mg methanol (wood alcohol), immediately released into the
body after drinking (unlike the large levels of methanol locked up in
molecules inside many fruits), then quickly transformed into
formaldehyde, which in turn becomes formic acid, both of which in
time become carbon dioxide and water-- however, about 30% of the
methanol remains in the body as cumulative durable toxic metabolites of
formaldehyde and formic acid-- 37 mg daily, a gram every month.
If 10% of the methanol is retained as formaldehyde, that would give 12
mg daily formaldehyde accumulation, about 60 times more than the 0.2 mg
from 10% retention of the 2 mg EPA daily limit for formaldehyde in
drinking water.

Bear in mind that the EPA limit for formaldehyde in
drinking water is 1 ppm,
or 2 mg daily for a typical daily consumption of 2 L of water.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/835
RTM: ATSDR: EPA limit 1 ppm formaldehyde in drinking water July 1999
5.30.2 rmforall

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D895HAO00.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_\
down%3ENutraSweet

The Associated Press/NEW YORK

NutraSweet to boost aspartame capacity

MAR. 30 4:08 P.M. ET With more consumers switching to diet soft drinks,
NutraSweet Co., a leading producer of aspartame, plans to restart a
mothballed production line at a Georgia plant this year to satisfy increased
demand for the sugar substitute.

The plans will result in a 30 percent increase in aspartame production,
NutraSweet Chief Executive Craig Petray said.
According to Petray, aspartame demand is rising 4 percent to 5 percent,
largely due to its use in U.S. soft drinks.

"Despite sucralose getting most of the headlines in recent months, the
resurgence in demand for aspartame is a key development in 2004," said Nick
Fereday, a senior economist at LMC International Ltd., a New York consulting
firm that tracks developments in the sugar and sweetener industries.
In recent years, use of low-calorie sweeteners has grown faster than sugar
use, Fereday said.

The demand for low-calorie sugar substitutes has been so strong that right
now there is room in the market for all of these sweeteners to grow,
according to Fereday.

Chicago-based NutraSweet will reopen part of its aspartame facility in
Augusta, Ga., that has been shuttered since 2003.

Petray expects the plant to reach full capacity by 2006, he said. Once
restarted, the company's production capacity will rise to 10,000 metric
tons.

Current aspartame production is estimated to be in the range of 16,000
metric tons and 16,500 metric tons, Petray said.

NutraSweet isn't alone in boosting capacity of aspartame. Japan's Ajinomoto
Co. also announced capacity expansions at its plants in Yokkaichi, Japan,
and Gravelines, France.

According to LMC, the additional capacity may mean an aspartame price war is
imminent.

"To fill the Augusta plant plus our Korean plant will mean we will need to
price aspartame more aggressively," Petray said.

Petray estimates about 80 percent of its aspartame is used by beverage
manufacturers such as Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo Inc., and Cadbury-Schweppes
PLC.

In 2004, sales of diet soft drinks increased faster than regular drinks.
According to data collected by Beverage Digest/Maxwell, sales volume for the
leading U.S. diet soda, Diet Coke, rose 5 percent last year. Diet Pepsi
volume climbed 6.7 percent, and Diet Dr Pepper rejoined the top 10
best-selling soft drinks with a 16.2 percent increase, according to Beverage
Digest.

Responding to these trends, manufacturers are bringing out new drinks
sweetened with sucralose, aspartame, and acesulfame potassium, or Ace-K.
Petray said he expects the addition of new products such as Cherry Vanilla
Diet Dr Pepper and Coke Zero will help sustain the growth of diet soft
drinks this year.

Still, much consumer attention is still being heaped on Splenda, or
sucralose, which is made by Tate & Lyle PLC of Britain.

As a tabletop sweetener, Splenda is marketed by McNeil Nutritionals, a unit
of Johnson & Johnson based in Fort Washington, Pa., and its success has been
remarkable. Splenda has become the leading artificial sweetener sold in the
United States for tabletop use.

As an ingredient in foods and beverages, Splenda also is showing growing
appeal, particularly among consumers over age 40. The list of manufacturers
creating products with Splenda continues to grow and now includes Pepsi One,
which has been reformulated with Splenda, as well as a new Splenda-sweetened
version of Diet Coke.

It is too soon to know if these Splenda-based products will steal market
share from other diet drinks on the market, which are mostly sweetened with
aspartame.

In the short run, Splenda's success could create a new opportunity for
NutraSweet. NutraSweet has been marketing neotame, another intense sweetener
it manufactures, for use blended with other sweeteners.
For example, Thirst Rockers, a juice drink made for grocer Kroger Co.,
contains a mix of neotame and sugar.

NutraSweet is a privately held company, with most of the shares in the hands
of Boston-based J.W. Childs Associates LP.

Copyright 2005, by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
************************************************************

http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/news/news-ng.asp?id=58489-cost-is-the

Cost is the key to neotame's success

04/03/2005 - We reported on Wednesday that sales of the sweetener neotame
had increased four-fold during the last 12 months. Philippa Nuttall spoke to
NutraSweet's CEO to find out the reasons for this success.

The company attributes its success largely to the fact that neotame is now
widely available, meaning demand can be met, and that consumer pressure is
forcing food manufacturers to make products containing less calories.
The company was unable to share figures with FoodnavigatorUSA.com as it is
privately owned, but confirmed that the ingredient is selling well because,
in comparison to its rivals, it is cost efficient, costing substantially
less, for example, than high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).

"Neotame is more cost effective than all other sweeteners except saccharin,"
Craig Petray, NutraSweet's CEO told FoodNavigatorUSA.com.

He added that sales are increasing quicker internationally, outside the US,
namely in Australia, New Zealand and China, where the ingredient is being
used particularly in yoghurts and fruit juices to replace aspartame or
sugar.

The company does not yet have approval to sell neotame in southern Latin
American countries, but the northern part of the continent and Mexico is
seeing good progress in sales.

"We hope to get approval to sell the ingredient in Latin America south
during the next few months," Petray told FoodNavigatorUSA.com.

New products that have recently come to the market that contain neotame
include, Kroger's fruit juice and certain powdered ice-teas. Neotame is also
now used in some Detour energy bars and certain confectionary products, such
as Wrigley Chewing Gum in Australia, Roman Meal Bread line and Herr's
pretzels in the US.

"Reducing the amount of high fructose corn syrup in a beverage reduces the
number of calories and the cost," said Petray, adding that generally 25-30
percent of the HFCS is replaced by neotame.

Neotame has a different taste profile than either sugar or HFCS and
therefore it would not be used as a total replacement, but Petray pointed
out that if used at the right level, the ingredient can actually enhance
certain fruit flavors.

Taste and cost are the two criteria on which sweeteners should be judged,
according to Petray, and the references most often referred to by food
manufacturers.

The increase in Neotame's sales has been based from a small starting point,
but Petray it confident that this trend will continue. He projects that
sales will triple this year and believes they could do the same next year.

"Things could really explode, we are continuously optimistic," he said.

Copyright - Unless otherwise stated all contents of this web site are ©
2000/2005- NOVIS. - All Rights Reserved.
For permission to reproduce any contents of this web site, please email our
Syndication department: Administration & Finance .
************************************************************

http://www.foodnavigator.com/productnews/news.asp?id=58461

Neotame sales soar, while Splenda's ads attract more criticism

02/03/2005 - Sales of the sugar substitute neotame more than quadrupled last
year as food and beverage manufacturers searched for low calorie
alternatives in the face of rising obesity, said its makers, writes Philippa
Nuttall.

NutraSweet announced last week that worldwide sales of neotame - said to be
8,000 times sweeter than sugar and approved by the FDA in 2002 - had
increased four-fold in the past 12 months.

And according to the company CEO, this trend is set to continue. "We are
planning a significant increase in neotame production capacity this year to
meet the accelerating customer demand," said Craig Petray.
He attributed the rise to "neotame's sugar-like taste" and "cost
advantages", which meant the company had been able to open new sales
channels for the
sweeteners.

"These, along with the success of the Sweet Spot, our new development lab in
Chicago, put us in a better position to help customers develop foods and
beverages sweetened with neotame," added Petray.

While, NutraSweet celebrated its increase, faces at Johnson & Johnson no
doubt fell yesterday when they learnt that yet another body had added its
voice to the chorus clamoring for it to stop its marketing campaign for its
sweetener Splenda.

The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) on Monday delivered a letter to the
FTC demanding an investigation into the marketing campaign being conducted
by by Johnson & Johnson's McNeil Nutritionals for its artificial sweetener,
Splenda.

The organization, like others before it, claims that it is misleading to
make any connection between the sweetener and sugar.

"Splenda doesn't grow in a field like sugar cane or sugar beets," said
Ronnie Cummins, OCA's national director.

The letter from the OCA follows hot-on-the-heels of that sent by the Florida
Consumer Action Network (FCAN) in February.

The group reiterated the line already being peddled by the US sugar
association and Merisant that Splenda is, in fact, a man-made chemical
compound. FCAN wants the FTC to make Johnson & Johnson suspend the marketing
campaign and "set the record straight".

McNeil Nutritionals filed a court action in U.S. District Court in Delaware
on 8 February for false advertising and deceptive trade practices against
the sugar association and its members in an effort to stop the organization
"from continuing to make false and misleading claims about Splenda". The
sugar association had filed a lawsuit in December against McNeil
Nutritionals, which hinged on "deceptive and/or misleading representations",
made by the sweetener firm in "advertisements and marketing terminology".

Previous to this, Merisant, the US maker of tabletop sweetener Equal and
NutraSweet and a competitor to Splenda, had alleged in November that the
product's marketing slogan, "made from sugar, so it tastes like sugar", had
mislead consumers into thinking the artificial sweetener was "natural".

McNeil Nutritionals asserts that sucralose starts off as pure cane sugar,
and is then chemically altered in the manufacturing process to create a new
compound with zero calories and 600 times sweeter than sugar.

A currently booming market for the Splenda product may, or may not, feel the
impact of the US court cases.

"From our perspective, whatever the outcome of the litigation, sucralose
will still be made from sugar, and still taste like sugar," a spokesperson
at Tate and Lyle, that manufactures the Splenda brand, said in December.

Market analysts Freedonia predict growth of intensity sweeteners at around
8.3 per cent year on year until 2008, with sales rising from a small base of
$81m in 1998 to $189m in 2008.

© 2000/2005 - NOVIS. - All Rights Reserved.
************************************************************

http://www.beverageworld.com/beverageworld/images/pdf/Diet%20BW%20Supp%208_04.pd\
f

Future of Diet Beverages
BY JEFF CIOLETTI 10 August 2004 I BeverageWorld Supplement

Fads come and go, but few have had such far-reaching effects on beverage
business decisions. "It seems like the whole world is on the Atkins diet,"
observes Francie Patton, vice president of corporate communications for
AriZona Beverage Company, whose NoCarb green teas launched last year just as
carb became George Carlin's eighth dirty word.

All hyperbole aside, it's not too far from reality.

While recent statistics suggest the craze spawned by the late doctor could
be reaching a plateau, it's likely that carb and calorie counting will
continue long after people (almost inevitably) begin asking, "Atkins who?"--
especially since it
looks like obesity concerns aren't likely to abate in the near future.

"Even when Atkins starts to get less popular, there will always be people
who want to take, maybe not all of the carbs out of their diets, but just
some of them," Patton predicts.

In the carbonated world, it's no longer front-page news that CSD growth has
been flat for several years.

Fortunately for the category, the diet segment has been the saving grace,
partly, one might argue, for being in the right place at the right time.
After all, they were zero-carb before zero-carb was cool. For the past four
consecutive years, diet CSD [ carbonated soft drinks ] growth outpaced that
of the regular segment. In 2002 and 2003, only the diet segment demonstrated
positive growth. In 2000, US diet soft drink volume was about 3.9 billion
gallons. In 2003 that number jumped to about 4.4 billion gallons-a
13-percent increase. Meanwhile, during the same time frame, regular soft
drink volume lost about 200 million gallons.

"I think over the short run, diet should grow nicely," says Mike Weinstein
of Liquid Logic, a beverage business consultancy.

And that, he says, will happen even with a new third segment, midcalorie,
entering the arena this year, with Coca-Cola C2 and Pepsi Edge leading the
charge. The jury's still out on whether the halfsies will
cannibalizemexisting soft drink business. PepsiCo is banking on the prospect
that Pepsi Edge will source "dual users," those who drink both diet and
regular sodas in equal measure.

"(Dual users) are up 75 percent from what they were just a couple of years
ago, and they're growing very quickly," notes Ahad Afridi, vice president of
marketing innovation at Pepsi-Cola North America. "All of our innovation is
focused on trying to be incremental and, though cannibalization is always a
concern, we think the proposition is right to provide incrementality to us."

If either existing segment takes a hit, many believe it will be regulars, as
diet drinkers have little or no intention to go from zero to 70 (calories)
in one can.

"Diet is growing at a rate of 8 to 9 percent and I think it will continue to
be the same," says Javier Benito, US retail division president and chief
marketing officer for North America at The Coca-Cola Company. "I don't think
we're really going to be sourcing consumers from that category. I think what
's going to happen is we're going to grow the sugar CSDs again, which is one
of Calories and carbs, or the lack thereof, are driving the beverage
business.

The folks at Diet Rite are basking in the diet upsurge and have been in the
process of reinventing and reinvigorating the brand that first hit the
national scene more than 40 years ago. The brand has been in the
Cadbury-Schweppes portfolio since 2000.

"This is a great time, as the industry needs to have great diet offerings,"
says Tony Jacobs, vice president of marketing for Diet Rite. "From our
standpoint, we don't see (the obesity issue) as a crisis, it's an
opportunity to take advantage of the trend in the marketplace. And for that
Diet Rite is perfectly positioned. It's not just one product in the brand's
line, it's what the entire brand stands for."

The company began to reposition the product a couple of years ago and is now
kicking off an aggressive marketing and advertising campaign built around
the
concept of zero carbs, zero calories and, as far as taste is concerned,
"zero compromise." Just as the Atkins juggernaut began its conquest of
dieting lifestyles across the US, Diet Rite marketers knew the time had
arrived to put all its might behind the brand. "We saw this whole health
consciousness trend coming and really began pushing this product," Jacobs
continues.
"And it's not just the Atkins diet anymore, it's all of these low-carb diets
that are out there. The timing is great for building awareness among a
larger audience."

Arizona makes its green tea's key attribute of 0 carbs quite clear on the
label.

BeverageWorld Supplement I August 2004 11

DIET BEVERAGES

Just as diet and midcalorie brands are aggressively competing for consumers'
taste buds, there's now a fairly vast assortment of sugar alternatives vying
for inclusion in the range of low-cal formulations.

"Sweetener technology has gotten so much better and what hasn't changed is
consumers' demand for great-tasting beverages," says Ahad Afridi, vice
president of marketing innovation at Pepsi-Cola North America. Diet Pepsi
continues to use NutraSweet brand aspartame, while Pepsi Edge incorporates a
blend of high-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) and Splenda brand sucralose.

Diet Rite began using Splenda about five years ago, just prior to its
Cadbury-Schweppes acquisition. "We've been able to achieve a greattasting
product with the sweetener," says the brand's vice president of marketing
Tony Jacobs.

Jones Soda, the Seattle-based specialty soft drink company known for
launching radical concepts in carbonation (turkey and gravy soda readily
comes to mind), also opted for sucralose. "We've been exclusive to Splenda
and have used it since we launched in 1999," reveals Jones Soda president
and CEO Peter van Stolk. It also recently launched a midcalorie watermelon
soda, which blends Splenda with HFCS. Van Stolk says he hopes all of Jones'
sugared soda options can be replaced by the mid-calorie alternative. He
believes offering three segments-regular, diet and mid-calorie-would only
confuse Jones' consumer base.

On the non-carbonated side of the beverage business, AriZona Beverage
Company vice president of corporate communications Francie Patton notes the
company is transitioning its products from aspartame to Splenda.
"It's amazing how people read those ingredient labels now," Patton muses.
"They know what they want and they know what they don't want and people just
seem to want Splenda."

Despite all of the activity with Splenda, NutraSweet maintains its position
as a leading sweetener supplier to the beverage world. In fact, the company
is developing sweetening options that go beyond basic aspartame and beyond
the low-cal category. The company believes it can reduce the calories of
regular soft drinks by 25 to 33 percent with no taste sacrifice.
"Our latest quantitative research shows that 57 percent of people
we spoke to were watching what they eat or drink," explains Craig Petray,
CEO of The NutraSweet Company (Chicago). "We also asked those people, 'What'
s most important to you when selecting a soft drink?' and by a five-to-one
margin, taste is by far the leading reason why people drink soft drinks, as
we'd expect. People don't want to sacrifice that. They want their drinks to
taste the same, but have fewer calories."

NutraSweet researchers have been conducting tests on cola, root beer, lemon
lime, orange and other soft drink flavors to determine how much HFCS could
be removed and replaced with zero-calorie sweeteners before consumers start
noticing a difference. "It was different for different flavors," reveals
Petray. "For example, with orange we could remove up to 33 percent and with
cola, we'll usually stay at about 25 before someone could start to taste the
mouthfeel difference."

When one hears the name NutraSweet, one immediately thinks solely of
aspartame. However, the company has been expanding its sweetener horizons
lately, incorporating other products, even competitive, to its sweetener
blends where necessary. It's better able to achieve that 25- to 33-percent
calorie reduction and zero taste sacrifice with a blend of sweeteners.
"Sometimes we need a little bit of Ace-K because Ace-K adds a great onset of
sweetness," Petray notes. "Depending on what flavor we're sweetening and
what percent substitution we're doing, we'll have one, two or three
sweeteners in the blend."

NutraSweet's latest product, Neotame, was approved by the US
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2002 and is known for its
extreme sweetness level. Actually, extreme is a bit of an understatement.
"It's 8,000 times sweeter than sugar," reports Petray. A 70-percent
sugar, 30-percent Neotame blend, he says, "works very, very
well." It's also quite economical, as Neotame costs less than aspartame,
sucralose and Ace-K.
"We're also potentially looking at adding some competitive sweeteners
to our portfolio, so maybe down the line we will, but not now,"
Petray adds. -J.C.

http://www.nutrasweet.com/media/index.asp

J.W. Childs Completes Purchase of NutraSweet Company, Agreement Includes
Revolutionary New Sweetener Neotame

CHICAGO (May 25, 2000) - J.W. Childs Equity Partners II, L.P. today
announced that it has completed the purchase of the NutraSweet Company from
Monsanto, a wholly owned subsidiary of Pharmacia Corporation, for $440
million in cash. The sale includes the sweetener business, the NutraSweet®
brand name and the revolutionary new sweetener, neotame.

Nick E. Rosa, formerly a senior vice president with Monsanto, will serve as
president and CEO of the NutraSweet Company, the world's largest producer of
aspartame. In addition, NutraSweet's approximately 500 employees have all
been offered positions with the new company.

"We are pleased about adding the NutraSweet Company to our portfolio of food
and beverage companies," said Tim Healy, a managing director of J.W. Childs,
who will serve as chairman of the NutraSweet Company. "The high-intensity
sweetener market is the fastest-growing segment of the global sweetener
industry. We see a major opportunity to build on NutraSweet's brand equity
and its track record of delivering innovative products, operational
excellence and superior customer value to the sweetener industry."

As executives at NutraSweet in the early 1980s, both Healy and Rosa were
instrumental in successfully launching NutraSweet, which has become the
global market leader in the $1.1 billion worldwide high-intensity sweetener
market.
"The NutraSweet Company revolutionized the sweetener industry in 1981 with
the introduction of aspartame," explained Rosa, "and we intend to do it
again with neotame when we receive approval from various regulatory agencies
around the world."

Neotame is a new-generation, high-intensity sweetener, designed to deliver a
clean, sweet taste like sugar, with no added calories. In addition to being
great tasting and functional, neotame's potency - it is 40 times sweeter
than NutraSweet and 8,000 times sweeter than sugar - is expected to deliver
substantial value to food and beverage manufacturers because it will enable
them to use significantly lower levels than other sweetening alternatives.

Joining Rosa on the management team will be Craig Petray, senior vice
president of global sales and marketing, and William DeFer, senior vice
president of global operations; both of whom have more than 10 years of
experience with the NutraSweet business, and Chief Financial Officer William
Schumacher, formerly with Select Beverages. Members of the new management
team are also investors with J.W. Childs in the purchase of NutraSweet, and
have a significant ownership stake in the business.

"We will continue delivering exceptional value and building on our long-term
relationships with customers on a global basis," said Petray. "We will do
this by producing the highest quality aspartame in the world, continually
improving operational efficiencies to remain the lowest cost producer and by
providing unprecedented technical, R&D and regulatory support."

Headquartered in Chicago, the NutraSweet Company stands alone in its ability
to provide customers with a full value portfolio, including superior quality
product manufactured at a state-of-the-art facility in Augusta, Ga.,
unrivaled technical, R&D and regulatory support, competitive pricing and an
experienced management team. In 1999, BrandWeek magazine named NutraSweet®
one of the top 100 brands of the century. NutraSweet® brand aspartame is
sold in more than 100 countries and used in approximately 5,000 products by
250 million people on a regular basis today.

J.W. Childs Associates, L.P., a leading private investment firm located in
Boston, manages $1.5 billion in capital. The firm focuses on acquiring and
growing middle-market companies in partnership with management and has
substantial experience in the food, beverage and food ingredient industries.
Current portfolio companies and former investments include Ghirardelli
Chocolate Company, Empire Kosher Poultry, General Nutrition Centers and
Chevys "Fresh Mex®" Mexican restaurant chain, plus many non-food consumer
companies.

NutraSweet® and the NutraSweet symbol, are registered trademarks of
NutraSweet Property Holdings, Inc. ©2003 NutraSweet Property Holdings, Inc.
All Rights Reserved
************************************************************

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.11/newsugar.html?pg=1&topic=&topic_set=

Issue 11.11 | November 2003

Hitting the Sweet Spot By Evan Ratliff

Contributing editor Evan Ratliff (evan@...) wrote about China's
Green Great Wall in Wired 11.04.

Hitting the Sweet Spot

It's got full flavor at one-third the calories. It's safe for teeth and
diabetics. And it's all-natural. The long, strange search for the ultimate
sugar substitute.

Atkins. The Zone. Slim-Fast Dark Chocolate Fudge Shakes. For decades,
hucksters and scientists alike have offered an endless string of fixes for
our oversize appetites and waistlines. But while their wallets may be
getting thicker, we aren't getting any thinner. An even more lucrative
future awaits the inventor who can give the US what we really want: the
ability to eat anything in sight and not get fat.

Photo by Stan Musilek, Art by Jason Mecier

When it comes to replacing sugar, plenty have tried. The history of sugar
substitutes is a catalog of strange scientific accidents stretching back
more than a century. In 1879, chemists Ira Remsen and Constantine Fahlberg
synthesized a derivative of coal tar called orthobenzoyl sulfimide. One day,
Fahlberg spilled the substance on his hand, which later that evening he
touched to his mouth. It tasted sweet. He filed for a patent and called the
substance saccharin. In 1937, a University of Illinois grad student
discovered another sweetener when he set his cigarette on a lab bench during
an experiment - testing a would-be antifever drug - and then took a drag off
the cyclamate-coated end. In 1965, a chemist named Jim Schlatter was working
on a compound to treat gastric ulcers. He licked his finger to grab a sheet
of paper and tasted aspartame for the first time. Then there was the 1976
discovery of sucralose by a King's College student working with chemically
altered sugars. The student - not a native English speaker - mistook his
professor's instruction to "test" the material and tasted a mouthful.

Unfortunately, these products of serendipity haven't lived up to their
promise. Consider the health scares - cyclamates are banned in the US;
saccharin can't shake its link to cancer. And there's the fact that most
sweeteners have just plain left a bad taste in our mouths. Remember Tab?
Diet sodas may be better today, but they're still not quite right.
Artificially sweetened foods remain a pale reflection of the real thing.

Now comes a sweetener that does all the wannabes one better: It's natural.
It actually is sugar. Unlike high-intensity artificial sweeteners, tagatose
looks, tastes, and cooks like sugar. It's 92 percent as sweet as table sugar
but with only 38 percent of the calories. Studies suggest it prevents weight
gain and doesn't cause cavities. It's safe for diabetics and may even help
combat the disease.

Sound too good to be true? Take a walk down to your local 7-Eleven and check
it out for yourself. Tagatose has cleared the FDA hurdles; it hit the US
market in Pepsi's Diet Slurpee in August. Now Pepsi is looking beyond frozen
beverages, testing tagatose in combination with other sweeteners to improve
the taste of its diet sodas. Other brands could follow. Kellogg's obtained a
patent in 2002 to use tagatose in "improved sucrose-free, noncarcinogenic,
reduced-calorie, insulin-independent" sweet cereals. Wrigley and Kraft have
patents of their own. As a result, tagatose could begin popping up in
products on US grocery store shelves by the end of the year. And its arrival
will mark the culmination of the most bizarre sugar substitute discovery of
all.

On a sunny morning in his office in Beltsville, Maryland, 79-year-old
Gilbert Levin is hunched over a press release from the Danish dairy company
Arla Foods. The firm, which holds an exclusive license to food uses of
tagatose, has begun production at its first commercial facility, with a
second plant on the drawing board. Levin's company, Spherix, will earn a 25
percent royalty on Arla net sales. And in Levin's mind, Slurpees are only
the beginning. He wants tagatosein chocolate, cookies, and cakes - and in
sugar bowls.

Levin's long, strange search for the ultimate sugar replacement started
three decades ago, when he stumbled upon chiral chemistry, the
well-established principle that complex molecules exist in "right-handed"
and "left-handed" forms, known as enantiomers

There's an easy way to understand chirality. Hold out your hands, palms
facing each other. Imagine that each hand is the chemical structure of a
molecule. Most complex molecules are chiral. Like your hands, the two
structures of chiral molecules - in sugars, they're referred to as D and L,
from the Latin dexter and laevus - differ only in the arrangement of their
elements. Put your hands together and they seem to match exactly. In the
same way, the common sugar D-glucose is the mirror image of L-glucose, its
rare counterpart. But put your hands down one on top of the other, both
facing down, and you'll see that they're not identical at all; they're what
chemists call non-superimposable.

Two enantiomers of a molecule will respond identically in a chemical
reaction, but not so in biological systems. Proteins and cell receptors are
designed to react only with particular enantiomers. For example, the enzymes
in your stomach can digest only right-handed sugars. Just as a glove fits
only on the proper hand, our bodies distinguish between the enantiomers of
any given molecule.

Louis Pasteur discovered chirality in the 19th century. But the practical
implications were few until the past 15 years, when the pharmaceutical
industry began to exploit it. Previously, drugs were produced in a mixture
of equal parts right-handed and left-handed enantiomers. The problem with
such mixtures is that the correct enantiomer might cure a disease, but the
wrong one could wreak havoc on the body. Such was the case with thalidomide
in the 1960s. One version cured morning sickness during pregnancy; the other
caused birth defects. By the late 1980s, researchers had improved methods of
synthesizing single enantiomers, which led to a revolution in
pharmaceuticals. Suddenly, drug companies could reduce dosages and avoid
side effects. Today, chiral pharmaceuticals are a $147 billion business.
Lipitor, Zoloft, and Paxil are all single-enantiomer drugs.

Neither chemist, biologist, nor businessman by training, Levin was
introduced to chirality - and with it, the inspiration for tagatose - while
taking a biochemistry class at Johns Hopkins University in the early '60s.
For Levin, it was a third tour at Hopkins; he received a bachelor's in 1947
and a master's in sanitary engineering a year later. In the mid-'50s, while
working for the Washington, DC, health department, he had an idea for a
faster method of checking beaches and swimming pools for bacteria. He added
radiation-laced nutrients to the water samples. If there were bacteria
present, he figured, they'd eat the nutrients and give off radioactive CO2,
detectable by a Geiger counter. The experiment worked, but it was never
widely adopted. "Something about the word radioactive scared the bejesus out
of people," he sighs.

For Levin, the success of sucralose is a frustrating case of what might have
been. He licensed tagatose to Arla in 1996, but it took five years for the
Danes to obtain the FDA's "generally recognized as safe" status in the US -
and then only as a food additive. It's taken another two years for Arla to
build the first plant. (Arla obtained approval for tagatose in Australia,
New Zealand, and South Korea this summer and expects Japan and Europe to
follow.) And while Arla was seeking regulatory approval, sucralose came to
market.

When tagatose finally hits the mainstream, it will offer distinct advantages
over its competitors. It can be used as a one-to-one sugar replacement. It's
safe for teeth, stimulates beneficial bacteria in the stomach, and has been
shown to enhance flavor. And, as the only FDA-approved natural sugar
substitute, tagatose avoids the anxiety about chemical derivatives. When
studies in the 1970s showed that rats developed bladder tumors from
consuming saccharin, the FDA proposed banning it, only to be overruled by
Congress. Saccharin's stained image, though, has made it hard for other
sweeteners to gain acceptance. The NutraSweet Web site's FAQ is devoted to
answering charges that aspartame causes brain tumors, epileptic seizures,
even weight gain.

Such public suspicion could give all-natural tagatose a huge marketing edge.
The body might not distinguish between naturally and chemically derived
food, but consumers do. Tagatose could hitch a ride on the same sentiments
driving resistance to GM foods and the burgeoning infatuation with organics.
The growing concern over obesity and diabetes could also fuel demand. A 1999
Spherix-funded study at the University of Maryland, published in Diabetes,
Obesity, and Metabolism, showed that not only is tagatose safe for
diabetics, it also blunts the rise in blood sugar from regular glucose
consumption.
"It's going to go from a very minimal production rate to really starting to
take over the market," says Paula Kalamaras, who coauthored a report on
sweeteners for the Norwalk, Connecticut-based independent research firm
Business Communications Company.

Levin isn't waiting around. In August, he traded in his CEO title to become
Spherix's executive officer for science, leaving more time for his new
gambit: commercializing tagatose, as Naturlose, for use in pharmaceuticals
and toothpaste. Spherix is working with an unnamed university to manufacture
samples that use sugar to sweeten a variety of medications. To convince the
drug companies, Levin will unveil Spherix animal studies demonstrating any
number of benefits that come with Naturlose: fertility enhancement (one
study showed high pregnancy rates among tagatose-fed rats), biofilm
prevention (tagatose breaks up films of bacteria that form on teeth and
medical instruments), and even anemia treatment (tagatose enhances key blood
factors critical to fighting the disease). In May, Spherix also patented a
technology to utilize the chiral nature of perfumes. Levin's idea is to
replace natural isomers of fragrance molecules - which lose their
effectiveness when they are eaten by bacteria on the skin - with their
mirror-image synthetic counterparts.

"My dad is one of these people who would very much like to be respected for
his scientific achievements," says Levin's son Ron, an MIT radar systems
engineer. "Many people have invested in him and tagatose, and many people
have been waiting a long time for it to be developed, so he is very much
motivated to bring the investors through to success."

But it may take more than motivation. Spherix and Arla are tied up in
arbitration over the tagatose license contract. The patent on tagatose as an
additive expires in 2006, the two patents on production methods a few years
later. Levin hopes to see his sugar substitute flood the market before then.
And two new NASA rovers slated to land on Mars in January could show that
Levin was right all along. Talk about sweet vindication.

It didn't scare NASA. Levin persuaded the agency to bring his test to Mars.
On July 20, 1976, the Viking I lander touched down on the Red Planet to
gather data about its atmosphere and surface - and to use Levin's invention
to look for life. The lander would place Martian soil in a container with
radiation-laced nutrients. If microbes were present, they - just like the
swimming-pool bacteria - would eat the nutrients and release radioactive
CO2. If radioactivity was detected, it could mean only one thing: life.

Gilbert Levin made his discovery two decades ago; now a mass-market version
of tagatose is finally within reach.

The results came back positive, stunning NASA researchers. The Viking heated
the sample to kill any microbes and tested again as a control. By the
parameters of the experiment, Levin discovered life. The problem was that
two other life-detection experiments came up negative, as did a test for
organic matter - a precursor to all known life. The official NASA line:
Levin's test had been fooled by oxidants in the soil.

Levin still believes he discovered life on Mars. Twenty-seven years after
his initial experiment, attitudes about the possibility of Martian life have
changed. That doesn't mean anyone's admitting Levin was right, but he has
become harder to dismiss outright. "I agree that his experiment found
something very interesting," says Chris McKay, a Mars expert at NASA's Ames
Research Center, who sides with the non-life camp. "We need to go and find
out what it is. But I disagree that we can conclude already that it is
life."

While the Mars experiment may be considered inconclusive at best, it led
Levin to tagatose. Persuaded by NASA that he needed to improve his
credentials, Levin returned to Johns Hopkins for his PhD in environmental
engineering. That's where he learned that the body handles each type of
molecule differently. It gave him an idea: If he could find a left-handed
sugar, human enzymes wouldn't be able to process it. But would the
substitutes still be as sweet as right-handed table sugar? A search of the
literature turned up one paper examining L-glucose. The conclusion: bitter.
Levin ordered some anyway and set up a taste panel at his new company,
Spherix (née Biospherics). To his surprise, no one could tell the difference
between the L and D versions. In 1981, Levin patented 10 left-handed sugars
for use in foods and began looking for ways to make them. "We found several
that were quite good," he says, "but we could never manufacture them cheaply
enough."

For five years, Levin cycled through obvious candidates - L-sucrose,
L-fructose - and found each too expensive to be viable. Finally, he decided
to try L-tagatose, a rare left-handed sugar. When the maker accidentally
sent him D-tagatose, he tested it. It was nearly as sweet as sugar, with
similar baking and browning properties. By coincidence, D-tagatose is
structurally similar to L-fructose, making it enough like a left-handed
sugar that the small intestine absorbs only 20 to 25 percent of it.
Translation: low-calorie. As it turns out, the perfect sugar Levin was
searching for wasn't left-handed at all. But it took a lesson in chiral
chemistry to find it.

Most crucially, the Spherix team devised an inexpensive way to make
tagatose. Tiny quantities occur naturally in dairy products, and the process
to derive it starts with whey, a byproduct of cheese-making. Lactose is
extracted by removing proteins and then dissolved to form glucose and
galactose. The glucose is sold off, and an enzyme is added to the galactose
to form tagatose in bulk, either as syrup or crystals. Spherix patented the
process in the late '80s.
Finding a way out of the lab and into the high-volume, low-margin food
business proved daunting. Levin hustled for the money to build his own
full-scale plant or find a partner, but talks with companies like Procter &
Gamble fell through. Levin remembers the frustration. "They all told me,
'Once you've got the product developed and for sale, come back to us. We're
not going to help you develop it,'" he says.

The longer it took him to produce tagatose, the more skeptical prospective
customers became. Manfred Kroger, a professor emeritus at Penn State and an
expert on low-calorie sweeteners, recalls, "People kept asking for samples,
and Spherix said, 'We've only made one pound so far.' I thought the product
was dead."

He wasn't the only one. Levin floundered for two decades trying to bring his
discovery to market. Meanwhile, Spherix had to support his tagatose habit by
expanding into a call-center business developed by Levin's wife, Karen. The
company sets up operators to handle inquiries for government agencies and
corporations. A handful of other Levin inventions never panned out. Today,
Levin is seeking more than financial gain; he's looking for redemption. At
the end of a 60-year career of near-misses, he hopes to finally silence
skeptics in the scientific and business communities. "After all these false
starts, as each year has gone by, it's like crying wolf," he says. "They're
not going to believe it until they see it."

Levin whips out a set of keys, unlocks his desk, and rummages through a
drawer. He pulls out a bag of tagatose-coated bran flakes and a chocolate
bar, both creations of his Danish licensee. The bran is a little stale but
sweet enough, and the chocolate tastes just like the real deal. He hands me
a baggie of pure tagatose. I hold it up to the light, dab a little on my
finger, and try it. A dead ringer for table sugar.

In a crowded sweetener market, it has to be. In addition to standbys like
saccharin and aspartame, there are a handful of entrenched substitutes on
store shelves - acesulfame potassium, stevia, and sugar alcohols like
mannitol and sorbitol - used in myriad combinations to feed our ever growing
appetite for diet food. The most troublesome competitor for tagatose is
sucralose, sold as Splenda by McNeil Nutritionals, a subsidiary of Johnson &
Johnson.
Sucralose is derived from sucrose through a process that replaces three
hydroxyl atoms with chlorine, creating a crystal 600 times sweeter than
sugar. Unlike saccharin and aspartame (but like tagatose), sucralose is
heat-resistant, so you can bake with it. But it behaves differently than
sugar. Foods sweetened with sucralose won't brown as well and they cook more
quickly, so recipes may need to be adjusted. Splenda hit the market in 1998
and has since made its way into hundreds of big-name products (see chart,
opposite page).
************************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/841
Merisant Co., MSD Capital, Dell Computer Corp., NutraSweet Co.,
JW Childs Assc.: aspartame-neotame toxicity: Murray 2002.07.10 rmforall

http://www.merisant.com/pages/homepage.asp
http://www.merisant.com/pages/about_merisant/biographies.asp
Karl T. Sestak, Communications
The Merisant Company
10 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 850
Chicago, Illinois 60606
312.840.6000 fax 312.840.5146

July 10, 2002 Hello Karl T. Sestak,

I last called and emailed you on 10.18.00.

Since March, 2000, Merisant Company has been a world manufacturer
of aspartame products, supplying over a third of the world market
in over 100 countries.

On late Friday, July 5, the FDA announced its approval of Neotame
(Sweetener 2000), based on its review of "over 113 studies in animals
and humans". So, I promptly checked PubMed, which had 5 listings,
none of which were about animal or human toxicity or dispositions
in the body, whereas for aspartame there are now 701 listings.

You may search among 11 million medical citations on PubMed for any
topic or author, and for many studies get an abstract summary:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/PubMed/ .

It is remarkable to me that searches on Google or AllTheWeb reveal no
published studies about neotame safety, although Sweetener 2000 is
mentioned since 1987. Common sense would appraise that if neotame was
soundly safe, the industry would rush to publicize the research. After
all, the world sweetener market is fiercely competitive, with billion
dollar stakes. It is also notable that few, if any, neotame products
are in Australia and New Zealand since the ANZFA approval there last
summer.

I am already contacting groups like Food Intolerance Network of Australia,
whose Net newsletter has 955 members, to ask if those who are sensitive
to a variety of chemicals, including aspartame, are reporting problems
with any neotame products:

failsafe_newsletter-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info .

Note their thorough list at
http://www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info/alladditives.html ,

which, as yet, does not include neotame.

Can a corporation safely survive in this era of publicly disseminated
information, save by only selling absolutely safe substances?
Wouldn't any strategy of "information management",
the longer and more apparently successful it seems to operate,
inevitably result in an even more catastrophic denounment,
just as in the recent collapses of Enron and WorldCom?

Obviously, health and safety issues, for the common good,
must be thoroughly aired in public arenas.
The Net makes this inevitable.

If you provide a list of the 113 studies, abstracts and full texts,
many will review them carefully, and be very happy to give
them the public approval they surely deserve. This would be the most
expeditious way to launch a truly safe substance. Put every word of
every study on a public website, along with a permanent uncensored,
public, archived email forum.
Or, as in the case of aspartame, equivalent sites
will emerge from the dire need of the people: http://www.dorway.com .

http://www.hoovers.com/uk/co/capsule/5/0,2163,100515,00.html

http://www.merisant.com
http://www.merisant.com/pages/contact/index.asp
estimated 2001 revenues over $ 500 million, 700 employees

"With its nearly 20 brands, Merisant has more than just an Equal share
of the tabletop sweetener market. Fueled by Equal and its other
flagship brand, Canderel, Merisant controls more than one-third of the
market. Its aspartame-based products are sold in more than 100
countries; customers outside the US account for more than half of its
sales. Merisant was formed in 2000 when a group of investors (including
Pegasus Capital Advisors, MSD Capital, and Brener International)
bought the tabletop sweetener operations of biotech firm Monsanto.
(Monsanto's NutraSweet-brand aspartame business -- a supplier to
Merisant -- was sold to J.W. Childs Equity Partners.)
A Searle scientist discovered aspartame in 1965;
Canderel debuted in 1979."

http://www.hoovers.com/uk/co/capsule/3/0,2163,58863,00.html

http://www.msdcapital.com
http://www.msdcapital.com/management.html
MSD Capital LP 50 staff in 2001
645 Fifth Avenue, 21st Floor
NY, NY 10022-5910 ventures@...
212-303-1650 fax 212-303-1620 recruiting@...

"Poor, poor Michael Dell: too much money and nowhere to put it. That's
where MSD Capital comes in. Taking its name from Dell's initials, the
investment firm handles the Dell Computer founder's personal investments in
companies outside his namesake business, allowing him to focus on making
PCs. Dell bankrolled MSD with approximately $1 billion in seed money in 1998
with the mandate to invest in promising technology startups and other
companies; it has backed online bridal service WeddingChannel.com, among
others. In addition to VC investing, MSD Capital invests in public stocks
and private equity deals, including LBOs and MBOs. The firm will
occasionally invest in other investment firms' limited partnership funds."

http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/default.htm
http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/corporate/media_media.htm
http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/corporate/biography/biography_generic_michael_dell\
.htm

http://www.dell.com/la/us/en/gen/corporate/michael.htm
Dell Computer Corporation
512-728-4100 Media Relations Team

http://www.hoovers.com/uk/co/capsule/4/0,2163,101064,00.html

http://www.nutrasweet.com
http://www.nutrasweet.com/infocenter/nscompany/contact/index.asp
The NutraSweet Company
10 S. Wacker Dr., Ste. 3200 Chicago, IL 60606 USA
Phone: +1 312-873-5000 Fax: +1 312-873-5050

$ 260 million revenues in 2000
375 employees in 2001, + 7.1% growth in a year.

Chairman Tim Healy
President and CEO Nick E. Rosa [former Monsanto Senior Vice President]
CFO William Schumacher

Investment firm J.W. Childs bought NutraSweet from Monsanto in 2000;
NutraSweet management also has a stake in the company.

http://www.jwchilds.com/
J. W. Childs Associates, L.P. 111 Huntington Avenue - Suite 2900
Boston, MA 02199-7610
617-753-1100 617-753-1101 info@...
************************************************************

http://www.lmc.co.uk/food/index.html
LMC International Ltd 14-16 George Street Oxford OX1 2AF UK
Tel: +44 1865 791737 Fax: +44 1865 791739

LMC International Ltd 1841 Broadway New York NY 10023 USA
Tel: +1 212 586 2427 Fax: +1 212 397 4756

Enquiries regarding our range of services may be made to our sales team
by e-mail : information@... , or for clients based in the USA,
Mexico and Canada, analysis@....

1997 Mr Nick Fereday Natural Resources Institute
Central Maritime Avenue Chatham Kent ME4 4TB UK
Tel: + 44 1634 880 077 Fax: + 44 1634 880 066

http://www.kroger.com/ kroger.investors@...
http://www.kroger.com/contactus.htm
1014 Vine Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202-1100 1-866-221-4141

Philippa Nuttall 020 7447 6709

http://www.adweek.com/aw/search/article_display.jsp?schema=&vnu_content_id=10007\
47178

Lee Ascends Amid Executive Shuffle at Coke
January 05, 2005 By Kathleen Sampey

He also said the company is searching for a North American advertising
director following the resignation today of 10-year Coke veteran Javier
Benito, who had been CMO of Coca-Cola North America and president of U.S.
retail.
http://www.adweek.com/aw/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000856023

Starwood Hires Ex-Coke Exec As CMO March 28, 2005

NEW YORK -- Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. said Monday it has
named Javier Benito as evp and CMO. Benito will report directly to CEO
Steven Heyer and will be responsible for all aspects of marketing worldwide.

Benito left his position as CMO at Coca-Cola North America in January. He
also has served as CMO at Starbucks and as an executive in the marketing
departments of Procter & Gamble's and Nike.

White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood, which has more than 750 properties in 80
countries, said Benito will help to "redefine brand positioning for Westin,
Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, St. Regis and W
Hotels." The company has also hired Scott Bedbury, a former Starbucks CMO
and Nike marketing executive, to serve as a brand advisor and assist with
this strategy.

Benito "thoughtfully breaks old rules and creates new ones, which gels
perfectly with our desire to move from functional to emotionally relevant
branding," Heyer said in a statement. Heyer joined the company from Coke in
October.

http://www.starwoodhotels.com/
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
1111 Westchester Avenue White Plains, NY 10604
Phone (914) 640-8100 Fax (914) 640-8310

http://www.freedoniagroup.com/ info@...
767 Beta Drive Cleveland, OH 44143
440-684-9600 ax 440-646-0484

http://www.organicconsumers.org/
Organic Consumers Association admin@...
6101 Cliff Estate Rd, Little Marais, MN 55614
E-mail:Staff · Activist or Media Inquiries: 218-226-4164 · Fax: 218-353-7652
Información en Español: 415-271-6833
Ronnie Cummins purefood@...

http://www.inmotionmagazine.com/jfcg.html 1998.07.18
Network for Safe and Secure Food and Environment
NESSFE (Mika Iba) Tel.+ 813-3327-6444 Fax. +813-3325-5890 e-mail:
<eric@...>
Consumers Union of Japan ( Setsuko Yasuda ) Tel. +813-3711-7766
Fax +813-3715-9378
publish@...

Mika Iba, Director mika@...
Network for Safe and Secure Food and Environment (NESSFE)
3-23- Matsubara, Setagayaku, Tokyo 156-0043
Tel. 81-3-3325-5772 Fax: 81-3-3325-5890

http://www.sweetspotlabs.com/?rm=launch_pop&a=pop_faq_nav&b=pop_faq
Sweet Spot Labs Inc. Chicago IL 1-877-793-3877
Jeremy Creed, President - Creed Solutions Inc (416) 482-9033,
jcreed@...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1151
Jupiter man leads new player into sweetener market, Susan Salisbury re Mike
Scott of Sweetener Solutions (neotame), Univar USA, Herr Foods, Dairy House:
Murray re methanol issue 2005.02.07 rmforall

http://buyersguide.ift.org/cms/?pid=3003&companyId=1000259
Sweetener Solutions, LLC
1209 East Hwy 80 Building B Pooler, GA 31322
Phone: 866 748 7177 Fax: 912 748 3566
info@...

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1150
How far from sugar is splenda? Pallavi Gogoi, businessweek.com 2005.02.02:
Murray 2005.02.04 rmforall

http://www.splenda.com/
©McNeil Nutritionals LLC, 2004 Ft. Washington PA, USA.
Questions or comments? Call 1-800-777-5363
http://www.splenda.com/vcrc/email/emailform.jhtml

http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/hcp/basics.inc

http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/hcp/safety.inc

http://www.splenda.com/page.jhtml?id=splenda/hcp/regapproval.inc

http://news.corporate.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20050118/18jan2005103540.html
CONTACT: Monica Neufang, +1-215-273-8812, mneufan@..., or Cathy
Grayson-Roper, +1-732-524-6372, cgrayson@..., both of McNeil
Nutritionals, LLC

http://www.jnj.com/news/jnj_news/20040219_091613.htm
Johnson & Johnson: McNeil Nutritionals, a division of McNeil-PPC, Inc.
[ McNeil Nutritionals, a Division of McNeil- PPC, Inc. is one of the
largest members of a worldwide giant - the Johnson & Johnson Family of
Companies. Johnson & Johnson is a diverse, global health care concern
comprised of approximately 175 companies marketing products in more than 54
countries.
Johnson & Johnson acquired McNeil Laboratories in 1959, beginning a
profitable affiliation. Soon after the acquisition, McNeil moved to our
present 110-acre site in Fort Washington, Pennsylvania, a suburb of
Philadelphia.
In October 1998, McNeil Consumer Products Company changed its name to McNeil
Nutritionals, a Division of McNeil- PPC, Inc. Company in keeping with the
Company's vision of fulfilling consumer healthcare needs. ]
501 George St., New Brunswick, NJ 08903
Phone: Toll-Free: 800-777-5363 www.ingredient.splenda.com

Johnson & Johnson [ employing approximately 109,900 people worldwide ]
One Johnson & Johnson Plaza, Room WH 2133, New Brunswick, NJ 08933

http://www.jnj.com/investor/corp_gov_form_board.htm
contact Presiding Director of the Board of Directors

http://www.arizonabev.com/csr/home.asp
AriZona Beverage Co. 5 Dakota Dr., Suite 205 Lake Success, NY 11042
1-800-832-3775 Francie Patton <azbev@...>

Ferolito, Vultaggio & Sons was founded in 1971 by John Ferolito and Doominic
Vultaggio as a distributor of beer products in the New York market....
Hornell Brewing Co....
In 1992, with an eye on the rapidly increasing consumer demand for
ready-to-drink iced teas, the two decided to enter the competition and
AriZona Iced Tea was launched....
In January 1994, the two began work on building a national sales
organization and expanding distribution of AriZona products nationally.
From $17 million in retail sales in 1992, the AriZona brand has grown to
become the nation's third largest share brand in supermarkets.

Sept. 2003
Always on the cutting edge, AriZona teams up with the Atkins Association to
introduce AriZona No-Carb Green Tea. Available in two flavors, No Carb White
Cranberry and No Carb Blueberry Green Tea.

http://www.beverage-digest.com/editorial/031205.php
Beverage Digest 2003.12.03
Mike Weinstein Retires.
Reflects on Industry: 'Pull Our Heads Out of the Sand.'
Industry Leaders: 'Bold, Creative Business Judgment.'
'Friend to the Industry.' 'First Class Executive.'

Weinstein -- one of industry's most respected/liked executives -- retires at
year-end. His 31-year stint in beverage business ranged from Pepsi to A&W to
Triarc/RC/ Snapple to Cadbury. He is currently president innovation/business
development Cadbury Schweppes Americas Beverages. Weinstein is best known in
recent years for his leadership in reviving Snapple after its unfortunate
years under Quaker Oats ownership. Career details. Weinstein began career in
beverage business with Pepsi. Joined A&W in 1981 and became president/COO in
1991. Cadbury acquired A&W in 1993, and Weinstein left to form Liquid Logic
Consulting Group. He re-entered beverage business in 1995 when Triarc bought
Mistic and named Weinstein CEO. In 1996, Weinstein took over management of
Royal Crown, also owned by Triarc. Triarc acquired Snapple in 1997 and put
it under Weinstein's leadership. When Cadbury acquired Snapple in 2000,
Weinstein continued as CEO until he moved to innovation post in 2001.

Interview. BD asks Weinstein: Your thoughts on state of industry?
MW: "The bad news is somehow our products have slipped into the center of a
nutritional debate when all they were meant for was fun and refreshment. We
desperately need a way to get aligned as an industry, pull our heads out of
the sand and lead the discussion in a positive direction. The good news,
actually it's great news, is that beverages are ideally positioned to
capitalize on the convenience trend because of their portability and
ingestability. Where we take this is only limited by our imagination."

Future innovation opportunities for Coke, Pepsi and Cadbury? "There's been
lots of talk around the 'I' word over the past few years. But all I'm seeing
is line extensions. I think the biggest challenge for all of us is the
mental and financial staying power to develop and nurture an idea that's not
mainstream day one. I believe the best opportunities will lie in a little
ingredient science and a lot of clever positioning."

http://www.mikeweinstein.com/index.php?id=biography


Arla Foods amba Skanderborgvej 277 P. O. Box 2400
DK-8260 Viby J
phone: +45 89 38 10 00 fax: +45 86 28 16 91
e-mail: arla@...

http://www.spherix.com/ info@...
Spherix Incorporated 12051 Indian Creek Court Beltsville, MD 20705
Ph: 301.419-3900 Fax: 301.210-4909
************************************************************

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1157
Sales volume: saccharin > sucralose > aspartame, Harold Brubaker
timesleader.com 2005.03.23: Murray rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1143
methanol (formaldehyde, formic acid) disposition: Bouchard M et al, full
plain text, 2001: substantial sources are degradation of fruit pectins,
liquors, aspartame, smoke: Murray 2005.03.29 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1155
continuing aspartame debate in British Medical Journal, John Biffra, Bob
Dowling, Nick Finer, Ian J Gordon: Murray 2005.02.09 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1162
Santa Fe area physicians who oppose aspartame: Citizens Nutrition Council,
Santa Fe: Murray 2005.03.29

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1084
26 stevia safety abstracts since 1993: aspartame vs stevia debate on
alt.support.diabetes, George Schmidt, OD: Murray 2004.05.25 rmforall

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/message/1122
UN FAO & WHO approve Steviol glycosides as sweetener June 2004, imports to
UK no longer blocked: Martini: Murray 2004.10.17 rmforall

Rich Murray, MA Room For All rmforall@...
1943 Otowi Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87505 USA 505-501-2298
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/aspartameNM/messages
180 members, 1,164 posts in a public searchable archive
************************************************************