Zanbio Advances Health-Focused Innovation with Sugar-Free Oat Milk Compliant with Global Standards

As an innovator in the plant-based sector, what constitutes Zambax’s core competitiveness? How does its R&D team leverage innovative biotechnologies to enhance its products, and what are the advantages and value propositions of these offerings? What are Zambax’s future development plans?

With these questions in mind, VCBeat Orange Bureau interviewed Dr. Zheyong Yu, Co-founder, Chairman, and CTO of Zambice.

The concept of plant-based products began to frequently enter the public eye in 2019 and experienced a comprehensive boom in the short two-year period from 2020 to 2022. According to the "2023 Food and Beverage Industry Innovation Trends Report" released by the global consumer insights data platform Trend Hunter, plant-based products firmly hold the top spot, distinguished by key attributes such as health, environmental sustainability, nutrition, and technological innovation.

Riding the “green wave” of plant-based foods replacing animal-derived products, Dr. Zheyong Yu and three other co-founders established Zambase Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in Shanghai in 2021.

The company’s CTO, Dr. Zheyong Yu, and CEO, Dr. Xiaogang Gu—both overseas-educated Ph.D. holders and co-founders—possess robust expertise in cutting-edge biocatalysis and synthetic biology technologies, along with extensive experience in industrialization. They have published nearly 20 papers in internationally recognized core journals and secured more than 40 international patents.

Jiang Su, Founder and Marketing Director, specializes in functional food solutions and branded ingredient marketing, with over 20 years of experience in international markets. Tan Cong, Founder and Production Director, has approximately ten years of experience in initiating R&D projects for biocatalytic production. Furthermore, Zhanbeisi’s R&D team comprises more than half of its total workforce, with the vast majority holding master’s degrees or higher.

Leveraging the founders’ and core team’s extensive industry experience, Zambase precisely captures domestic and international market demands and development trends, breaks down technical barriers between laboratory research and industrialization, and continuously applies synthetic biology technologies in an efficient manner to deliver novel solutions for global plant-based products, bringing more healthy and eco-friendly offerings to market.

This is not only the original entrepreneurial intention of the four founders, but also the corporate vision of Zanbeisi: Science Driven for Wellness.

Guided by the core team’s robust R&D capabilities and mature commercialization experience, Zambace, established two years ago, is currently advancing more than 10 product pipelines, including plant-based milk, slow-release carbohydrates, dietary fiber, modified plant proteins, bioactive peptides, and nutritional proteins. Two major product categories have reached the commercialization stage: the Plantairy® series of enzymatically hydrolyzed grain powders (oat, buckwheat, and highland barley powders) and SusCarb®, a premium sports nutrition ingredient (high-branched cyclic dextrin).

The plant-based oat milk sector has become increasingly crowded in recent years, with intensifying competition. Plantairy® enzymatically hydrolyzed grain powder has established partnerships with numerous companies both domestically and internationally, earning strong market favor. So, what innovations distinguish Zambase’s plant-based oat milk, enabling it to secure a foothold in this highly competitive oat milk market?

▲Plantairy® Oat Powder Product Series (Image source: Zambits official website)

First, Plantairy® oat flour retains the unique nutrients and flavor of oats. As the only grain listed among TIME magazine’s “Top 10 Healthiest Foods in the World,” oats contain up to 16% dietary fiber, approximately one-third of which is water-soluble β-glucan. Due to its significant physiological activity and health benefits, β-glucan has garnered considerable attention in recent years across global fields including medicine, nutrition, healthcare, and food science.

β-Glucans can form a sustained high-viscosity environment in the digestive tract, thereby hindering the gastrointestinal absorption of fats and cholesterol. According to research by experts from the American Heart Association, every 1% reduction in total blood cholesterol lowers the incidence of heart disease by 10% and reduces heart disease mortality by 2%. Furthermore, delayed gastric emptying can lower blood glucose levels and insulin responses, as well as suppress appetite-stimulating pancreatic polypeptides. While enhancing satiety, β-glucans reduce appetite, thereby helping to regulate blood glucose levels.

Secondly, as a plant-based dairy alternative, Plantairy® oat powder addresses common market issues with many oat milks, such as high sugar content, poor stability, and inferior sensory quality. To tackle these pain points, the Zambase team leveraged its proprietary innovative biotechnology to degrade oat starch into oligosaccharides and soluble polysaccharides, without generating monosaccharides or disaccharides that have a high glycemic index.

Plantairy® oat powder not only meets the sugar-free standards stipulated by Chinese regulations but also complies with the U.S. FDA’s sugar-free criteria for oat milk ingredients, granting it a strong competitive advantage in the global plant-based milk market. Furthermore, its “Sugar-Free Oat Milk Innovation Technology” was recognized as one of the Top 50 Global Innovative Technologies at the 2023 iSEE Awards hosted by Foodaily, and ranked among the Top 13 FFIS Annual Innovations at the 3rd Food Formula Innovation SHOW.

▲ iSEE Top 50 Innovative Technologies & FFIS Top 13 Annual Innovations

Zanbeisi also leverages its patented biotechnology, combined with specialized processing techniques, to enhance the dispersibility and stability of oat flour. This technology has been extended to other plant-based milk categories, such as buckwheat milk, highland barley milk, and chickpea milk. The company has filed a PCT international patent application for this innovative technology and has obtained patent grants and safety certifications in numerous countries and regions worldwide, including FSSC 22000 and ISO 22000 food safety management system certifications, EU Organic Certification, USDA Organic Certification, Kosher certification, and Halal certification.

Zanbeisi’s other innovative ingredient—SusCarb®, a high-quality slow-release carbohydrate for sports nutrition—is produced through the enzymatic cyclization of waxy corn starch using cyclase[1]. As a versatile ingredient, it not only serves as an energy supplement for professional athletes and fitness enthusiasts before, during, and after exercise, but also functions as an encapsulating agent, masking agent, and spray-drying aid. Its applications are extensive, spanning sports drinks, energy gels, energy powders, and muscle-building supplements, making it the ideal partner for athletic energy needs.

▲ Zambes SusCarb® Energy Powder & SusCarb® Energy Gel

In March this year, a JAMA Network journal published a prospective study on the correlation between plant-based foods and the risk of major chronic diseases (hereinafter referred to as the “Plant-Based Food Study”). After an 11-year follow-up involving nearly 130,000 participants, researchers found that individuals with higher adherence to plant-based diets had lower mortality rates and a lower prevalence of cancer and cardiovascular disease.

According to iiMedia Research’s “Analysis Report on the Global Plant-Based Market and China’s Oat Milk Consumption Trends (2022–2023),” the global plant-based market was valued at USD 18.50 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 35.50 billion by 2024. Against this backdrop, China’s oat milk market size reached RMB 1.75 billion in 2020, representing a year-on-year growth rate of 153.6%.

According to Dr. Yu Zheyong, facing a future market worth tens of billions in China and even worldwide, Zanbeisi’s core technologies are mainly focused on the upstream of product manufacturing processes. By establishing various cooperation channels with enterprises in different fields globally, it addresses the difficulties and pain points of current products on the market from the source.

Zanbeisi is not only customer-oriented, developing customized products according to client needs, but also market-oriented, co-incubating and innovating novel ingredients and products with clients. Leveraging its strengths in biotechnology R&D, the company helps numerous global enterprises overcome technical challenges and has advanced collaborative projects with select brands into pilot production stages to facilitate commercialization.

In addition to fostering collaborative partnerships, Dr. Yu Zheyong emphasized the critical importance of product selection for a synthetic biology company, stating that “the success or failure of product selection determines the company’s fate.” Therefore, before committing to the development of specific raw materials, Zambios comprehensively evaluates factors such as market size, commercialization timeline, and market prospects. The company also confirms whether product manufacturing aligns with its technological platforms and assesses various process challenges and production costs associated with large-scale manufacturing.

At the conclusion of the interview, Dr. Yu Zheyong stated that 2023 was a critically pivotal year for Zanbeisi. In terms of R&D, the company continued to increase its investment, strengthen the capabilities of its technological platform, and achieve scaled production of its products. Regarding team building, Zanbeisi further expanded and cultivated its workforce this year to enhance overall corporate competitiveness. On the product front, the company clarified its R&D direction and continued to enrich its product pipeline.

References: [1] Wilburn D, Machek S, Ismaeel A. Highly Branched Cyclic Dextrin and its Ergogenic Effects in Athletes: A Brief Review. Journal of Exercise and Nutrition, 2021, Volume 4 (Issue 3): 15