RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, CALIF. — SweeGen, Inc., a supplier of stevia-based sweeteners, is setting up food and beverage application centers in four global regions: North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, the company said March 30. The centers will allow customers to collaborate with SweeGen on sugar reduction systems.

“This expansion on application and technical support into local markets is our continuing commitment to provide a unique sugar reduced solution that rapidly reduces product development time for our customers and delivers a winning product for the region,” said Shari Mahon, senior vice president, application technology for Rancho Santa Margarita-based SweeGen. “Each facility will feature a full spectrum of development capabilities supporting beverage, dairy, confectionery, snack and bakery foods.”

A California center opened earlier this year. Centers in Mexico and Europe will follow, and the Asia-Pacific center is slated to open by the end of 2020. SweeGen expects the opening of the European center to coincide with an anticipated European Food Safety Authority approval of the company’s Rebaudioside M stevia sweetener in Europe.

“We see stevia as the preferred global ingredient for sugar reduction, and that’s possible because SweeGen scales the production of Reb M, D and E to world levels,” said Luca Giannone, vice president of sales and marketing.