PepsiCo, which is also working with Senomyx on sweet taste modifiers (click HERE), will provide research funding for Senomyx's Salt Taste Program for 2014 and will have non-exclusive rights to salt flavor modifiers discovered during the research funding period, while Senomyx will have the right to supply these flavor ingredients directly to PepsiCo.
Building on work by scientists who have successfully cloned human taste receptors for sweet, bitter and umami tastes, Senomyx uses high-throughput biological screening techniques to evaluate millions of molecules to identify which substances bind to specific taste receptors.
So far it has programs for sweet, savory, salt reduction, cooling and bitter-blocking, and has struck deals with big names in the industry from PepsiCo and Firmenich to Ajinomoto.
*Separately, PepsiCo is set to launch three new Pepsi cola products this summer made with sugar (as opposed to high fructose corn syrup) featuring the “made with real sugar" strapline.
The news - and accompanying pack shot (left) - was first revealed by Beverage Digest (Click HERE).
The beverages will come in regular, vanilla and wild cherry flavors, a spokesperson told FoodNavigator-USA: "We can confirm plans to launch Pepsi Made With Real Sugar and two Made With Real Sugar LTO [limited time offer] flavors — Pepsi Vanilla and Pepsi Wild Cherry.
"We'll be sharing more detail and photos closer to the official launch in June."