The company received a letter of no objection from the FDA that its Reb A stevia extracts were GRAS in June this year, a year and a half after the agency issued its first non-objection letters for the zero-calorie sweetener, derived from the leaves of the stevia plant.
Pyure Brands said it intends to offer its PyureOrganic products to food and beverage manufacturers by January 2011, with sample quantities available for trial product testing from next month.
CEO of Pyure Brands Benjamin Fleischer said: “The PyureOrganic series was designed to offer a more flexible array of stevia solutions that this industry has never seen before.”
The company said that its organic stevia extracts would be ideally suited to applications in which an organic alternative to sugar or artificial sweeteners is required – but although it is targeting food and beverage manufacturers, its organic stevia extracts are also suitable for nutraceutical and pharmaceutical applications, it said. Organic certification for the extracts was provided by Quality Assurance International.
Several stevia players have also emphasized stevia as a possible complement to sugar, providing a win-win situation for both the sugar and stevia industries. Such blends take advantage of both products’ natural status, meaning that unlike many other sweeteners that could be used to reduce sugar, manufacturers could continue to use a natural claim while cutting calories, as long as the other ingredients in the product are natural. They would also help retain the sucrose-like taste favored by consumers, while opening up the reduced calorie market for sugar producers.