As policymakers crack down on artificial ingredients and added sugars, Shiru launches commercial production of its AI-discovered ingredients

BERKELEY, Calif., April 24, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Shiru, the AI-powered ingredient discovery company, has launched commercial production of two groundbreaking ingredients: uPro, a structured protein with powerful texturizing and emulsifying properties, and OleoPro, a protein-enabled fat alternative that slashes saturated fat content while maintaining exceptional performance.

This milestone comes at a pivotal moment, as senior leaders in Washington D.C. demand that food and beverage companies eliminate artificial ingredients and sugar from products on shelves. Shiru’s AI-powered discovery platform uniquely enables brands to swiftly respond to evolving regulatory standards and consumer expectations, making the commercialization of uPro and OleoPro particularly timely and valuable.

Made with GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) ingredients and already suitable for sale today, these plant-based ingredients represent Shiru’s vision to enhance, rather than reinvent, the foods consumers already love.

Following successful development and significant customer feedback, Shiru has now launched commercial production to support growing customer demand. Shiru can now produce thousands of metric tons of OleoPro per year, ensuring the capacity to meet market needs. The discovery and development of uPro and OleoPro were enabled by Shiru’s proprietary Flourish AI platform, which reduces the traditional discovery timeline for high-performance, natural ingredients from years to months.

“uPro and OleoPro demonstrate how AI can rapidly identify natural ingredients to solve critical formulation challenges,” said Dr. Jasmin Hume, founder and CEO of Shiru. “Our Flourish platform’s ability to analyze millions of proteins quickly and precisely means food companies can immediately implement clean-label, sustainable solutions at a moment when speed and performance matter most.”

Performance-Driven, Industry-Ready Solutions

With increased urgency around cleaner labels and regulatory shifts prompting swift action from manufacturers, uPro and OleoPro arrive exactly when the industry needs them most. Both deliver exceptional functionality with clear advantages for manufacturers:

• uPro: A uniquely functional, structured protein derived from naturally sourced potato protein. uPro is made via precise, scalable physical processing, resulting in excellent emulsification and texturization properties. Simply labeled as “potato protein” for consumers, uPro can structure any liquid oil, including olive, canola, and soybean oils, eliminating undesirable additives while delivering unprecedented oil absorption, stability, and versatility for diverse food applications.
• OleoPro: A breakthrough fat alternative made with unsaturated liquid oil and potato protein that is solid at room temperature and delivers a greater than 90% reduction in saturated fat when compared to conventional solid fats. It provides authentic browning, flavor encapsulation, and rich mouthfeel across a premium range of applications requiring thick, creamy textures while supporting clean label initiatives.

Shiru is scaling production at pace with commercial interest, with both ingredients being gross-margin positive from launch. Global CPG companies recognize the competitive advantages these ingredients offer in creating products with improved nutrition and performance, clean and immediately decipherable ingredient labels, and greater supply chain resilience.

While initially developed for food applications, the exceptional functional properties of both ingredients have attracted exploratory interest from adjacent industries, demonstrating the broad applicability of Shiru’s AI-discovered ingredients across multiple markets.

Availability and Ordering

This milestone proves Shiru’s unique ability to discover high-performance ingredients, rapidly scale them and bring them to market. Given current market conditions and heightened industry focus on ingredient transparency, early adoption of Shiru’s solutions offers companies a strategic advantage. Starting today, companies can place orders for samples and commercial quantities. For more information or to place orders, contact sales@shiru.com.

About Shiru, Inc.

Shiru is transforming product innovation through AI-powered ingredient discovery, unlocking the next generation of high-performance ingredients that strengthen domestic manufacturing capabilities. In 2024, Shiru’s ProteinDiscovery.ai platform gained significant momentum, partnering with global leaders across food, beverage, skincare, and agriculture by accelerating ingredient innovation from years to months. Named a TIME Best Invention of 2024, Shiru’s technology enhances the products consumers already love, developing proteins, sweeteners, bioactives, and fats that promote product performance without compromising quality. With a robust pipeline of additional AI-discovered ingredients in development, Shiru continues to demonstrate the unmatched capabilities of its Flourish platform to transform ingredient innovation across multiple industries.

Media contact
media@shiru.com

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