As part of its Green New Deal the Korean Government has initiated a project to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop eco-friendly manufacturing systems. KISCO Group, of which JMC is a subsidiary, was one of 30 companies selected for support in 2021. In this report on the progress of the project, KISCO is described as “the most exemplary company” in the program.

The factory improvements are in four areas:

• Installation of a new thermal oxidizer (TO) facility to reduce emissions of volatile organic compounds. Waste heat from this process is also captured and re-used. This led to a reduction in some emissions of 99% and a saving of around 50% in heating costs.
• Installation of insulation to factory exterior walls to improve thermal insulation and add flame retardancy.
• Installation of rainwater tanks. The factory is now capturing up to 80 cubic metres of rainwater that is being re-used.
• Installation of a smart monitoring system to collect real-time data on emissions and environmental parameters. This will enable further improvements in efficiencies.

KISCO Group CEO, Sung Yong Cho said that “I have always been concerned about the treatment of volatile organic compounds generated in the process of operating a chemical manufacturing business. I would like to express my gratitude to the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Environment Corporation for actively solving these problems that small and medium-sized enterprises are struggling with through the smart, eco-factory construction project. We will take the lead as an eco-friendly company through continuous improvement efforts.”

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In response to concerns around supply chain disruption due to the current conflict in Ukraine, JMC has issued the following announcement.

We encourage you to share this with the relevant teams/people within your organisation.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this announcement.

In response to the growing regulation of potential carcinogens in pharmaceutical ingredients and excipients, JMC has issued an announcement confirming the safety of our saccharin products.

Regulators such as the US FDA have recently begun regulating nitrosamines and nitrites in pharmaceuticals. In response, customers have been asking JMC to confirm the safety of our products and processes. In particular, customers have been asking whether JMC uses the Maumee process to produce Saccharin. Such questions are raised because there are concerns among customers who are aware that nitrites are used in the Maumee process. We hereby confirm to you that JMC’s Saccharin is manufactured by the Remsen & Fahlberg process, not the Maumee process. Therefore, we can also confirm that there are no concerns about nitrosamines or nitrites with JMC’s Saccharin products.

Please find below a document that details why JMC products are totally free from nitrites. We encourage you to share this with your quality team.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions about this announcement.

JMC’s Food Safety System Certification (FSSC 22000) was renewed in January 2021. This certifies that our products meet the standards set by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). JMC’s use of the R&F process to manufacture saccharin ensures that we produce the world’s highest quality saccharin. Food safety management is a top priority for JMC.

For more information about our approach to safety and sustainability see:

To explain JMC’s unique approach to purity, reliability and sustainability, today we released a new video.

In this explainer video we show what makes our saccharin so special and why our manufacturing processes are safe, reliable and sustainable.

On August 8, we announced that we had obtained a patent on functionalised derivatives of sodium saccharin and how they are manufactured.

This patent was filed through a joint study with Professors Suhng Wook Kim and Un chul Shin of Korea University’s School of Health and Environmental Science. This work was also reported in an article published on October 29 in the International Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals. The title of the article is “Development of a 68Ga‐labelled PET tracer for carbonic anhydrase IX‐overexpressed tumors using the artificial sweetener saccharin”.

The patent concerns sodium saccharin and manufacturing methods of its derivatives combined with a ligand compound having an optional targeting action for hypoxic tumors. Sulfonamide-based substances, such as saccharin, show selective binding to Carbonic Anhydrase IX (CA IX) that occurs in tumor cells. Saccharin derivatives can therefore be used to safely and effectively diagnose cancerous tumor cells.

The results of this study confirmed the potential for saccharin derivatives to be used as new diagnostic pharmaceutical agents in addition to existing uses in various medicines, food ingredients, beverages, toothpastes, etc. as artificial sweeteners. We plan to continue joint research with domestic researchers to ensure that saccharin is commercially available as a building block for diagnostic substances in tumor cells.

For related articles, see the links below.

“Catch cancer with saccharin….What are KISCO’s Patents?” – Money Today Broadcasting (mtn.co.kr)

“Development of a 68Ga‐labelled PET tracer for carbonic anhydrase IX‐overexpressed tumors using the artificial sweetener saccharin” – International Journal of Labelled Compounds and Radiopharmaceuticals