FDA has no objection to GRAS for SweetLeaf stevia

The Arizona company is one of five players to have lodged a notification of GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status with the FDA and received a no objection letter in response. Coca Cola and Whole Earth Sweetener Company (a subsidiary of Merisant) receiving their letters relating to Reb A at a purity of 95 per cent or over in December 2008. Blue California and Sweet Green Fields recently received theirs too.

Wisdom’s notified the FDA of the GRAS status of its SweetLeaf Stevia product, for “general purpose sweetener in various food categories” in March. Founder and CEO Jim May, who has worked with stevia for almost 30 years, places great store by the natural extraction process which isolating and extracting the four sweetest steviol glycosides in the leaf.

SweetLeaf has been considered GRAS since March 2008, following the conclusions of an independent panel of scientists. A second panel, operating independently of the first, reached the same conclusion. However the FDA no objection is considered the gold standard.