CINCINNATI, Jan. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- 2nd Nature, the proprietor of AgWaste Portal™, today announced the launch of its first AI-discovered functional ingredients, available for commercial sampling in Q2 2026. The breakthrough ingredients, including non-calorie natural sweeteners and non-sodium umami enhancers, enable manufacturers to create healthier food and beverages, personal care, wellness, and medicine formulations without compromising taste or functionality. The company has filed a patent protecting these hidden ingredients, discovered in abundant major crop side streams and are difficult to identify through traditional human-led screening methods.
The initial ingredient portfolio addresses two of the food industry’s most pressing reformulation challenges: reducing sugar and sodium while maintaining consumer acceptance. The non-calorie natural sweeteners provide clean sweetness without the metabolic impact of sugar. The umami enhancers deliver savory depth and flavor enhancement without salt.
"What makes these ingredients revolutionary isn't just where they come from but how they were found," said Dr. Effendi Leonard, co-founder and CEO of 2nd Nature. "Our AgWaste Portal identified these compounds in the byproducts of crops like wheat, soy, rice, peanut, and corn—agriculture that food manufacturers already process in massive quantities and currently pay to dispose of their side streams. We can produce these ingredients at scale and at low cost."
AI Discovery Identifies Compounds Invisible to Traditional Methods
2nd Nature discovered the ingredients using the company's AgWaste Portal™, a proprietary AI platform that analyzes the complex molecular composition of agriculture processing side streams to identify high-performance compounds. Unlike conventional ingredient development, which depends on manual trial-and-error testing of hundreds of samples (a process that typically requires years of work), 2nd Nature's AI maps the molecular universe of agricultural waste to search for small molecules, fibers, peptides, enzymes, and proteins based on functional property prediction. This approach compressed what would traditionally take years into months, identifying natural sweeteners and umami enhancers with superior functional properties.
Abundant Sources Enable Scalable, Low-Cost Production
By sourcing ingredients from the side streams of common agriculture processed at industrial scale worldwide instead of exotic plants or animal origin, 2nd Nature enables scalable production at significantly lower cost than conventional alternatives. These crops generate millions of tons of nutrient-rich byproducts annually. Manufacturers currently treat these materials as waste requiring costly disposal, but they can now produce ingredients from their own waste streams, creating the shortest possible supply chain while converting disposal costs into revenue opportunities.
Patent Protects Novel Ingredients Across Multiple Applications
The patent protects the hidden ingredients discovered by the AgWaste Portal™, establishing intellectual property around compounds that represent molecular innovation. The patent covers a broad field of use, enabling applications across food and beverage, wellness products, home and personal care, and medicine formulation. This broad protection reflects the versatility of the discovered compounds and the platform's ability to orient its AI toward any waste stream to identify valorization routes.
Enabling Healthier Products Consumers Actually Want
The commercial significance of 2nd Nature's ingredients lies in addressing a critical market need: consumers increasingly demand healthier options, yet they refuse to sacrifice taste. Products marketed as "reduced sugar" or "low sodium" typically rely on synthetic ingredients and fail to deliver the same sensory experience as sugar and salt. 2nd Nature's AI-discovered ingredients enable clean-label, healthier products that maintain full sensory appeal. The natural sweeteners replicate sugar's complete sensory profile without added calories. The umami enhancers deliver savory depth and complexity without sodium. This combination unlocks new reformulation opportunities in categories where compromising on taste has historically limited success.
About 2nd Nature
2nd Nature is The Intelligent Upcycling Platform™, using Artificial Intelligence to discover high-performance functional ingredients in food processing side streams. The company’s proprietary AgWaste Portal™ maps the molecular universe of byproducts to identify hidden small molecules, fibers, peptides, enzymes, and proteins based on functionality. Named among FoodNavigator’s Top 30 World’s Food-Tech Innovators of 2025, 2nd Nature is building the foundation for a circular food economy where waste becomes the shortest, most resilient supply chain possible.
Media contact
Christina Ra
christina@2ndnature.bio
