Elo Life Sciences begins field trials to produce monk fruit molecule in watermelons with a goal to launch a new high intensity sweetener juice and powder in 2026.
Food and beverage manufacturers could soon have two more options in the race to replace sugar with healthier, clean-label and sustainable alternatives that they can source reliably and affordably thanks to North Carolina-based food-tech company Elo Life Systems, which recently launched field trials for the first-ever mogroside-producing watermelons.
The company says the resulting natural high-intensity sweetener “outperforms stevia and monk fruit,” and will be available as a juice and powder as early as 2026.
The sweet molecule produced in Elo’s watermelons – mogroside V – is a triterpenoid glycoside that is 200-300 times sweeter than sucrose and found naturally in monk fruit in small amounts, which makes it highly desirable but also difficult to source and expensive.
By producing the sweetener in watermelons through a combination of data analytics, bio-molecular farming and plant genetics, Elo will be able to offer higher quantities of the sweetener molecules more sustainably, locally and at a lower price point.
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