Harnessing Biotechnology for the Development of Brazzein as a Next-Generation Sweetener

Abstract

Sugar reduction has emerged as a major direction in the food industry, increasing the need to reduce sucrose while maintaining desirable sweetness quality. Brazzein, a high-intensity sweet protein, has attracted considerable interest. Depending on the sucrose reference concentration, its sweetness potency ranges from 500 to 2000 times that of sucrose, while the minor form is approximately twice as sweet as the major form. This review summarizes the structure–activity relationships of brazzein, its performance across food matrices, and synergistic blending effects with other sweeteners. Because brazzein occurs only in trace amounts in fruit, conventional plant extraction cannot support stable, scalable supply. Recent advances in microbial production are reviewed, including host selection, expression and folding control, secretion engineering, fermentation optimization, and downstream processing. Current production strategies are critically compared, with emphasis on product consistency, production cost, and scale-up challenges.