Sichuan Ingia Biosynthetic Co., Ltd.

Ingia Biosyntech, trading as INGIA, makes natural sweeteners and flavour ingredients by fermentation and enzymatic conversion. The range covers steviol glycosides, including the rare components Reb D, Reb M and Reb I, along with mogroside, allulose, tagatose, fermentation-derived vanillin sold as VanilliNext and coenzyme Q10. End markets given are food and beverage, nutrition, pharmaceuticals and cosmetic medicine.

The head office is at 4th Floor, Building 8, 269 Fenghuang Road, Tianfu New District, Chengdu, with an operations and R&D centre in the Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-Town. Three fermentation platforms are run at Chengdu, Xi'an and Shanghai, and a US office was opened to handle overseas business. The technology platform covers engineered strain construction, metabolic optimisation, biotransformation and purification.

The company reports that its enzyme-treated Reb D and Reb M received US FDA GRAS notice and ISO certification, that Reb I later received GRAS, and that industrial-scale production of Reb D and Reb M, then Reb I, and then natural vanillin followed in turn. A joint R&D centre was established with the Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences and a joint laboratory in Xi'an; postdoctoral researchers have been taken on from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. INGIA states that 87 percent of its research staff hold a doctorate or master's degree and that its production team members each have more than ten years of manufacturing experience.