Splenda

Splenda

Product type	Sugar substitute
Owner	Heartland Food Products Group
Country	U.S.A.
Introduced	1999; 25 years ago (1999)
Website	www.splenda.co.uk www.splenda.com www.splenda.ca

Splenda /ˈsplɛndə/ is a global brand of sugar substitutes and reduced-calorie food products. While the company is known for its original formulation containing sucralose, it also manufactures items using natural sweeteners such as stevia, monk fruit and allulose. It is owned by the American company Heartland Food Products Group. The high-intensity sweetener ingredient sucralose used in Splenda Original is manufactured by the British company Tate & Lyle.

Sucralose was discovered by Tate & Lyle and researchers at Queen Elizabeth College, University of London, in 1976. While researching in new insecticides, Shashikant Phadnis at Queen Elizabeth College misheard the instruction of his advisor Leslie Hough to "test" the chemical as "taste", due to his misunderstanding of the foreign accent. So he accidentally tasted the chemical, and to his surprise, he found it to be extremely sweet.^[1] Tate & Lyle subsequently developed sucralose-based Splenda products in partnership with Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Nutritionals, LLC.^[1] The Splenda brand was transferred to Heartland Food Products Group after its purchase of the line with investor Centerbridge Partners in 2015.

Since its approval by the United States government in 1998^[2] and introduction there in 1999, sucralose has overtaken Equal in the $1.5-billion artificial sweetener market, holding a 62% market share.^[3] According to market research firm IRI, Splenda sales were $212 million in 2006 in the U.S. while Equal's totaled $48.7 million.^[4] According to a 2012 article in The New Zealand Herald it is "the category leader in table-top sweetener in the US".^[5]