In an effort to lose a few pounds, I recently cut out sugar from my diet.
It didn’t seem like much of a challenge until I thought about the multiple cups of coffee I have each day with sugar.
I tried out different zero-calorie sugar substitutes and finally found stevia to be the most tolerable.
Even though stevia is the best of the bunch — especially compared to Splenda or Sweet’N Low — it has a long way to go.
You see, with stevia, the molecules responsible for the sweetness are extracted from the stevia plant and filtered out to make the sweetener.
But these molecules are less than 1% of the plant, and extracting them is a costly process.
Not to mention, the filtering methods don’t work fully, leaving behind a bitter and unpleasant aftertaste. (I’ll leave the face I make after finishing my morning coffee to your imagination!)
It leaves me wondering if there’s something better.
And it looks like there is…
Synthetic Biology Has Limitless Applications
Ingredion, a food-and-beverage ingredients company, recently introduced a product called RealSweet.
RealSweet uses genetically modified yeast and feeds it sugar, which it converts into the same exact molecules found in stevia.
It results in a sweeter product with no aftertaste since it doesn’t have to be filtered like natural stevia.
Not to mention its cheaper to produce since you aren’t farming massive quantities of stevia only to use a small portion of it.
This process of genetically engineering a microbe to make it manufacture a desired molecule or substance is known as synthetic biology.
According to Barron’s, the total addressable market for synthetic biology is nearly $1 trillion.
That’s not a surprising figure considering that this technology can be applied to nearly all industries ranging from agriculture to alternative fuels.
So far, synthetic biology is used to commercially create compounds for makeup, food flavors, fragrances, vaccines and polymers.
And this is just the beginning…
How to Invest in the Future of Food and Much More
While you could invest in companies like Ingredion to get in on synthetic biology, the real opportunity is in Amyris Inc. (Nasdaq: AMRS).
This is the company that developed the original product that Ingredion now markets as RealSweet.
Amyris’s portfolio of products include food ingredients and compounds for beauty and wellness products.
The amazing thing about Amyris is that it doesn’t wait around on other companies to get its products out there.
Take RealSweet for example. Amyris already had Purecane, its own in-house brand that was being sold in stores before Ingredion showed up.
And it does the same thing in the beauty and wellness space by developing its own brands like Biossance while partnering with cosmetics companies like Sephora.
This combined approach is the reason why Wall Street expects Amyris to grow its revenues from $392 million to $1.04 billion over the next five years.
That’s a compound annual growth rate of over 21%.
The stock has seen an incredible run-up of 350% in just the last year! And it’s not too late to get in.
However, if you’re looking for a more lucrative investment in synthetic biology, then check out Strategic Fortunes.
In his service, Ian King gives you the opportunity to get in on a company that’s earlier in its growth phase. And it has a presence in more industries than just food and cosmetics.
Regards,
Research Analyst, Strategic Fortunes
Morning Movers
From open till noon Eastern time.
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