New Leadership
Amai Proteins, the Israeli food-tech company behind the precision-fermented sweet protein sweelin®, has named Doug Brown as its new chief executive officer, effective September 1, 2026. Brown, a U.S.-based veteran of the food, beverage, and dietary supplement industries, steps in as the company pushes to accelerate commercial adoption of its flagship ingredient.
Brown brings decades of leadership across multinational and scale-up environments. Most recently, he served as Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Global Account Management for Sirio Pharma and Best Formulations. Prior roles include CCO at Clasado Biosciences in the UK and Head of Business Development for Nutritional Lipids at DSM Nutritional Products in Switzerland — a résumé that spans ingredient commercialization, global account strategy, and regulated nutrition categories.
"I am very excited to join the exceptional Amai Proteins team and help lead us into the next phase of growth," Brown said. "sweelin® is a perfect product at the right time for the GLP-1/peptide era."
What sweelin® Delivers
For food and beverage formulators navigating relentless consumer pressure to cut added sugar, sweelin® represents a differentiated option in an increasingly crowded alternative-sweetener landscape. The ingredient is derived from monellin, the naturally occurring sweet protein found in the West African serendipity berry, and is produced via precision fermentation. On a weight basis, sweelin® is approximately 3,000 times sweeter than sugar, which allows manufacturers to use significantly smaller quantities per formulation.
Amai positions the product for use across a broad range of applications — beverages, confectionery, chewing gum, condiments, and dietary supplements — and claims it enables up to 70% sugar reduction without sacrificing taste, cost competitiveness, or processing compatibility. Those claims will matter to operators and co-manufacturers who have struggled with off-notes and formulation instability from earlier-generation high-intensity sweeteners.
Operator and Industry Implications
The timing of Brown's appointment aligns with growing interest in protein-based, low-glycemic ingredients tied to the GLP-1 medication trend. As a significant share of consumers on GLP-1 drugs reassess their diets and reduce overall caloric intake, food and beverage manufacturers are accelerating reformulation work — a dynamic our beverage industry analysis has tracked closely over the past year. Sweet proteins like sweelin® sit at the intersection of clean-label demand, sugar reduction, and functional nutrition, giving them appeal across foodservice, retail, and supplement channels simultaneously.
Outgoing CEO Dr. Amir Guttman, credited with steering Amai through a strategic refocusing period, will remain involved as an Executive Board Member. Brown's commercial background signals that Amai's next chapter is centered on scaling partnerships with food and supplement manufacturers rather than continued platform development alone.
For restaurateurs, contract manufacturers, and branded food companies tracking next-generation sweetening solutions, Amai's leadership transition is a signal that precision-fermented sweet proteins are moving closer to mainstream ingredient pipelines. Food & Beverage Magazine has covered the broader precision fermentation wave reshaping the ingredient supply chain, and sweelin® is among the category's more commercially advanced candidates.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
