Stevia supplier GLG Lifetech is working with China’s largest food company - state-owned COFCO (China National Cereals, Oils, and Foodstuffs Corporation) - on three major healthy food and beverage formulation projects.
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.
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.
The maker of a new sugar free cookie sweetened with monk fruit extract claims its product is set for big things in markets with high diabetes rates such as Australia and Saudi Arabia.
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...
BEVERAGEDAILY.COM SPECIAL EDITION: SWEETENER INNOVATION
Stevia and sucralose are the best natural and non-natural sweeteners on the US market, according to one beverage developer, with savvy formulators able to iron out the former’s aftertaste issues.
BEVERAGEDAILY.COM SPECIAL EDITION: SWEETENER INNOVATION
Mintel analyst Laura Jones tells BeverageDaily.com that use of monk fruit as an all-natural, zero calorie sweetener has tripled in the past five years, but says she believes it still has taste issues to overcome.
BEVERAGEDAILY.COM SPECIAL EDITION: SWEETENER INNOVATION
The number of stevia-sweetened products launched around the world in 2012 'nearly doubled' compared to 2011 – a figure that leading stevia manufacturer, PureCircle, attributes to a recent steady stream of naturally-sweetened beverage launches.
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.
Geneva-based Natural Taste Consulting (NTC) has developed a ‘unique, sustainable and cost effective’ solution to significantly reduce the undesired licorice taste of stevia extracts, and bring the taste closer to sugar.
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.
New testing standards for steviol glycosides and caffeine announced by the United States Phamacopeial Convention (USP) will help the formulators of products containing those ingredients cut costs and improve efficiency, a USP official said.
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.
All stevia glycosides are safe with respect to their genotoxic/carcinogenic potential, says a new review that seeks to silence doubts once and for all about the ingredient’s potential in food and beverage products.
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.
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...
PureCircle says it is one step closer to establishing its high-purity stevia as a “mass volume, mainstream ingredient” after signing a joint development and supply agreement with soft drinks giant Coca-Cola.
There will be a “significant uptick” in US product launches containing Purefruit in the next six months, while the monk fruit-based sweetener is also moving towards price parity with stevia on a cost-in-use basis for many applications, claims Tate &...
Tate & Lyle has developed a new stevia sweetener, which it claims does not have the bitter flavour associated with many stevia sweeteners on the market.
Further evidence that steviol glycoside Reb A is no longer the only game in town when it comes to delivering high intensity natural sweetness has emerged in PureCircle’s full-year results, which show rebaudioside A accounted for just 40% of revenues in...
Sunwin USA has ended its distribution deal with Wild Flavors, Inc. to facilitate a global partnership between parent companies Sunwin Stevia International, Inc. and Germany-based Wild Flavors GmbH.
Stevia supplier GLG Life Tech has reported losses in the 2011 fiscal year and the first half of 2012, following a filing delay that led it to stop trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
A flood of stevia-containing products will arrive over the next 12 months, with beverages leading the way, says Mel Jackson, VP of science for Sweet Green Fields.
PureCircle’s next generation of stevia extracts, nicknamed stevia 3.0, will help the company step up its assault on the global obesity problem, according to Jason Hecker, vice president for global marketing and innovation.
Researchers claim to have identified the bitter taste receptors activated by specific stevia extracts, potentially leading the way to development of better taste modulators and more selective stevia plant breeding.
If current trends continue, stevia-based sweetener Truvia will be eyeball to eyeball with sucralose-based rival Splenda in the US retail tabletop sweeteners market within two years, brand owner Cargill has predicted.
Combining different sweet components from the stevia leaf – in a similar way to combining artificial sweeteners – may be the next step toward improving the flavor of stevia-sweetened products, says PureCircle’s vp of global marketing and innovation Jason...
The number of new products sweetened with stevia extracts in the EU shows a “significant uplift” on last year according to David Jago, Mintel director of innovation and insight.
The discovery of a taste receptor that controls the bitter flavour notes associated with stevia could lead industry to new ways to improve the taste of the natural sweetener, suggest researchers.
Monk fruit extract may be set to become a mainstream natural sweetener alongside stevia, but price remains a barrier, according to a Euromonitor industry analyst.
From stevia to monk fruit, oats, agave nectar and coconut palm sugar. In the second of our spring special editions, we look at what’s next for natural sweeteners.
Taste issues and high cost repeatedly have been raised as possible obstacles to widespread acceptance of stevia-derived sweeteners, but one of the many new suppliers entering the market claims that these are no longer the hurdles they once were.
While stevia is beginning to take off in a number of baked goods and snack categories in the US, Asian and South American markets, some other emerging ‘natural’ sweeteners look ready to take it on in the segment, claims Datamonitor.
