Spherix is an intellectual property development company. Earlier this year, it announced an agreement with ChromaDex Corp. to extend the commercial market for D-tagatose, expand the claims for the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) food ingredient, and streamline supply chain management for D-tagatose production.

Now ChromaDex has delivered to Spherix a plan to explore the expansion of D-tagatose into the sports nutrition and nutraceutical markets. D-tagatose is a natural sweetener present in only small amounts in fruits and dairy products. However, it can be produced commercially through an enzymatic process that starts with other natural sugars.

D-tagatose has the same bulk and sweetness of regular sugar (glucose). But it has a proven prebiotic effect and a low caloric value of only 1.5 kilocalorie per gram. It also has a glycemic and insulin index of only 3 percent of glucose. This makes D-tagatose an ideal solution as an ingredient for sweet and savory products since it provides the bonus of a health benefit.

That should make it possibly more valuable than other sweeteners in a range of products. ChromaDex had been granted an option previously by Spherix to commercialize D-tagatose based products.

Further information on D-tagatose can be found at either www.chromadex.com or www.spherix.com.

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