A Minnesota-based firm making waves with anthocyanin-packed purple-corn ingredients says it has had significant interest from the snack food market, but is also talking to microbrewers, confectioners, and firms manufacturing everything from sourdough...
Stevia sweeteners can now be developed through fermentation – rather than extraction from stevia plants – but it is the plant-based message that is most important to consumers, according to (plant-derived) stevia supplier PureCircle.
Stevia trade association the International Stevia Council (ISC) has called for more end users to become involved in its activities, to spur sustainability and more uniform standards in the sector.
Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) CEO Larry Young says the firm is very concerned by US sales declines in diet sodas and the company’s below average performance in that category.
For Justin Woolverton, founder and CEO of premium ice cream brand Halo Top Creamery, life had become too sweet and too sour at the same time. A dissatisfaction with his career path and a dietary restriction landed him in the freezer aisle.
A lawsuit filed in Hawaii alleges that Cargill is misleading shoppers by marketing its Truvia retail products as ‘natural’ as the Reb-A steviol glycosides they contain are "highly chemical processed" and the bulking agent used (erythritol) is...
PureCircle insists it newly GRAS-approved stevia-based sweetener Rebaudioside D can deliver ‘great tasting products’ well beyond a 30% threshold typically associated with Rebaudioside A alone.
The US FDA has issued a ‘No Objection’ GRAS letter allowing beverage manufacturers to use Pure Circle’s high-purity Reb D stevia to sweeten US products, a move that could reignite the Pepsi/Coke cola wars.
Big interview: Brian Meadows, president, GLG Life Tech
Stevia supplier GLG Life Tech has resumed trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and reassured investors that “the stevia market is growing worldwide, and we are positioned to take full advantage.”
The Coca-Cola Company and JV partner PureCircle have discovered and made progress in developing a new stevia-based food ingredient Rebaudioside X and are seeking GRAS approval for it in the US.
While the zero-calorie natural sweetener stevia is now used in scores of high-profile brands from Sprite Select to Vitamin Water Zero, the only top-tier cola brand to try it to date has been the Australian formulation of Pepsi Next, which has 30% less...
If it sounds like a ‘chemical’, or isn’t in the kitchen cupboard, shoppers may regard it with suspicion. But which ingredients are 'acceptable' to today's consumers, which are to be avoided, and who decides?
Recent data from Symphony Consulting (click here), shows that while US retail sales of products making ‘natural’ claims still grew in 2012, the pace of that growth slowed noticeably compared with the 2009-11 period.
In an order that will be read carefully by those following ‘natural’ labeling lawsuits, a California judge has rejected an argument routinely made by defendants - that the FDA has primary jurisdiction when it comes to judging whether ‘natural’ claims...
Coca-Cola has pledged to offer low- or no- calorie beverage options in every market following criticism that it is still aggressively promoting full-sugar products in emerging markets while offering healthier options at home.
Growth rates of several individual label claims under the health & wellness umbrella have started to level off, according to new research from Symphony Consulting.
Formulators seeking reduced-sugar cookies that are also acceptable to consumers may consider inulin to replace some of the sucrose, but erythritol isn’t a valid option, suggests new research from Spain.
A patent application filed by PepsiCo reveals some of the more “surprising” properties of Rebaudioside D (Reb-D) - the steviol glycoside claimed to have one of the best sweetness profiles of them all.
Natural Taste Consulting (NTC) has developed a new natural fat enhancer that works by stimulating fat taste receptors, replicating the taste and aroma of fat.
Dispatches from the RCA annual conference & culinology expo
Swiss firm Evolva Holding has partnered with Cargill to develop and commercialise stevia extracts derived from a fermentation process, rather than through traditional extraction from the stevia plant.
The first products containing the steviol glycoside Reb D - which has “one of the best sweetness profiles of any steviol glycoside from the stevia leaf” - will be introduced in the US in the second half of this year, says PureCircle.
While obesity in America has reached epidemic proportions, manufacturers seeking to help us battle the bulge are avoiding the word ‘diet’ like the plague; cutting sugar, fat and salt by stealth; and instead promoting more positive messages about food...
GMO Inside, a national coalition of companies and organizations, has marshaled a public Valentine’s Day campaign to pressure Hershey and Mars to drop GMO ingredients or to label them in their chocolate candies.
Acquisitions have helped Ingredion insulate itself from price swings on high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a company official during the company’s fourth quarter earnings call.
Big Interview: Brad Kloss, founder and CEO, FitPro
Launching a new product into the ultra-competitive ready-to-drink (RTD) protein shake market is not for the faint-hearted. But being a minnow in a pool of sharks doesn’t faze the founder of FitPro, who reckons he can give Muscle Milk a run for its money.
For Ben & Jerry’s, the Vermont-based ice cream company, taking the step to remove GMO ingredients from its supply chain was simply a matter of paying attention. Not necessarily to the news, to political pressure, or even to consumer attitudes. It...
Steviva Brands has launched a new stevia-based syrup blend designed to replace high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) in beverages, and claims it is a no added sugar ‘magic bullet’ for sweetening drinks.
From food ingredients that reduce the blood glucose response to food intake, to natural high-potency sweeteners, digestive health and weight management ingredients, and plant-based ingredients that can mask bitter flavors…
COMING TOGETHER OR FALLING APART? COKE'S ANTI-OBESITY ADVERT DIVIDES OPINION
Leading food nutrition academic Marion Nestle tells BeverageDaily.com that she considers Coke’s new anti-obesity advertising drive ‘Coming Together’ an ‘astonishing act of chutzpah’.
Food and beverage companies need to ‘redefine’ the concept of age in 2013 to seize specific growth opportunities presented by older consumers, according to Leatherhead Food Research.
Unit volumes of energy drinks were up a whopping 18.7% in 2012 - a staggering achievement given that unit sales of consumer packaged goods across all outlets slumped 0.3% over the same period - according to Symphony IRI*.
A new player in the stevia supply market promising purity levels “unmatched in the market place” says it will be in a position to start supplying commercial quantities of extracts by Q1, 2013 from a new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in Thailand.
Sweet Green Fields (SGF) plans to significantly expand its stevia crop in Georgia and North Carolina in 2013 in a bid to bolster supplies of American-grown stevia extracts.
Retail buyers, as every food and beverage manufacturer knows, want it all. Cleaner labels, an improved nutritional profile (lower fat, sugar and salt), great taste and texture - and an even keener price.
Cargill’s stevia brand Truvia has struck an exclusive deal with Grupo Herdez - a leading food producer and distributor - for the distribution and marketing of Truvia in Mexico.
Stevia suppliers are gearing up for action in Canada after Health Canada gave industry the green light to use steviol glycosides as table top sweeteners and food additives in food and beverages on Friday (November 30).
Tate & Lyle tells BeverageDaily.com that its new stevia ingredient, Tasteva, can be used to halve sucrose levels in cola drinks without a bitter aftertaste, and does not use masking agents.
Loss-making stevia supplier GLG Life Tech has reassured investors that it is still “very much” in business in a Q&A document designed to answer questions about its financial affairs.
Both sides have accused the other of hypocrisy as the increasingly bitter legal dispute between corn and sugar refiners moved into a new phase this week.
The first wave of products containing a new natural sweetener from oats called OatSweet have hit shelves in the US, and the firm behind it is now in talks with leading food and beverage manufacturers about incorporating it into everything from ice cream...
While the latest blends of steviol glycosides do not have the same bitter, licorice and lingering off-notes associated with some earlier stevia extracts on the market, some still contain “noticeable off-tastes compared to sugar”, says flavors giant Givaudan.
The entrepreneur behind Cweet - a natural high-intensity sweetener from a protein called brazzein- says he expects to secure regulatory approval to sell it in the US in one to two years.
Food manufacturers are increasingly seeing stevia as a way to “reinvent the regular” by helping them deliver incremental calorie reductions in everyday foods, rather than simply serving as a replacement for artificial sweeteners in ‘diet’ products, says...
Californian plaintiff Katie Kane has filed her second amended complaint against Greek yogurt giant Chobani accusing it of violating federal law by claiming its yogurts have “no sugar added” despite the fact they contain evaporated cane juice (dried sugar...
Unilever has added new ‘challenges and wants’ to its open innovation platform, this time seeking help with a stable natural red colour for fruit and dairy, and technologies to reduce sugar in ready to drink teas.
San-Diego-based flavor innovator Senomyx is screening a series of novel plant-based high-potency natural sweetening compounds in a bid to find the next stevia, monk-fruit or monatin.
