An amendment to the EU food additives regulation has removed the requirement for stevia blends to contain at least 75% stevioside or reb A, giving food and beverage manufacturers scope to formulate better tasting stevia-sweetened products.
Consumer research leads Cargill to believe that it has finally rounded the stevia taste bend, just in time for the revamp of nutrition labeling phases in over the next several years.
A trio of lime, stevia and β-glucans could open up opportunities for fruit based beverages that have an increased nutritional value yet are low in sugar, say Danish researchers.
Vancouver-based GLG Life Tech has developed a new variety of stevia containing unusually high levels of sought-after steviol glycoside Reb M, a breakthrough it claims is “a very important step to realizing a commercially viable Reb M extract from stevia...
The exploding sports nutrition market offers significant opportunity for alternative sweeteners taking stevia and erythritol beyond their applications as food ingredients, said Cargill experts.
Stevia is closing in on mainstream acceptance as a non-caloric sweetener, but the product will need additional innovation before it is fully accepted by consumers.
Rebaudioside M is safe and can be added to the list of EU-approved steviol glycosides (E960), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded. The agency said this was the case provided 95% of its components were converted to steviol.
Not so long ago, pundits were predicting that the high-purity stevia extracts market would be worth a billion dollars as manufacturers ditched artificial sweeteners and embraced ‘all-natural’ alternatives.
A recent FDA warning letter reminds food and beverage manufacturers that whole stevia leaf is not generally recognized as safe for conventional foods, even though many extracts of the plant are.
BioVittoria and Guilin GFS Bio-Tech Co have doubled their monk fruit supply and significantly boosted production capacity following a multi-million-dollar investment leading to the formation of a new company - Monk Fruit Corp - boasting an estimated 70%...
Swiss fermentation specialist Evolva and sweeteners expert Cargill have agreed to start engineering work so they can produce next-generation stevia sweeteners via fermentation at a Cargill biofuel and corn milling facility in Blair, Nebraska, ready for...
A feast of financial results from some of the industry’s big players (Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Crown Holdings, Pernod Ricard, and Heineken); a potential shake up in beverage can manufacturing; and stevia from fermentation technology: some of the nuggets of...
GLG Life Tech Corporation has announced another milestone in its effort to breed new cultivars of the stevia plant. The company has developed a variety that expresses higher levels of Rebaudioside A, or Reb A, the most commercially important stevia fraction...
SPECIAL EDITION 2014, BEVERAGE SWEETENER INNOVATION
Mintel says the presence of nutritionally beneficial compounds could see stevia-based sweeteners of the future that combine functional benefits as well as calorie-free sweetness.
SPECIAL EDITION 2014, BEVERAGE SWEETENER INNOVATION
Almendra says Europe’s beverage industry has been ‘particularly victimized’ by poor quality stevia to date as the company works to rewrite the narrative dismissing Reb A alone as a crude first-generation stevia.
SPECIAL EDITION 2014, BEVERAGE SWEETENER INNOVATION
David Thorrold, CEO of the world’s largest monk fruit extract supplier BioVittoria insists the sweetener can complement rival stevia to achieve a better-tasting product – as the experience of successful zero-calorie US soft drinks brand Zevia shows.
SPECIAL EDITION 2014, BEVERAGE SWEETENER INNOVATION
PureCircle has launched a new stevia blend called Sigma-D to target non-fermented, sweetened dairy drinks and other dairy products in what it says is a breakthrough category specific launch.
Pure Via labels will be amended, but 'natural' claim will stay
10 months after Cargill agreed to settle a class action lawsuit alleging it was misleading shoppers by marketing consumer products under the Truvia brand as ‘natural’, the firms behind rival stevia brand Pure Via have agreed to settle a similar lawsuit.
Sugar reduction campaigners have praised the Coca-Cola Company’s (CCC’s) refusal to drop the natural sweetener stevia in its Glaceau Vitaminwater in the UK, as it has done in the US.
I DON'T THINK COKE'S REVERSAL MEANS STEVIA HAS AN IMAGE PROBLEM': EUROMONITOR ANALYST
The CEO of soda brand Zevia insists Coke’s use of stevia in full-calorie Glaceau Vitaminwater has caused ‘substantial’ brand damage and says it raises questions over the future for mid-calorie sodas like Coca-Cola Life.
The Coca-Cola Company has ditched stevia as a sweetener for Glaceau Vitaminwater in the US and will revert to the original sweetening system – which used crystalline fructose and, in some cases, cane sugar.
The healthy beverage segment continues to steal market share from sugar-sweetened soft drinks and diet soda, as consumers’ perception of the role of beverage in their diets evolves alongside changing policy and public health initiatives.
Stevia-derived sweeteners have given the reduced sugar beverage category a boost, as manufacturers look to appeal to consumers looking for fewer calories without artificial sweeteners, according to a Euromonitor analyst.
TALKING RAIN CEO HINTS THAT REB D, REB X COULD BE DEEMED 'ARTIFICIAL'
Talking Rain CEO Kevin Klock says his $400m Sparkling ICE brand targets broad US consumers who care more about refreshment than calories and warns that new stevias like Reb D could be considered artificial.
It was a “Herculean task”, but the years spent developing the technology and protocols to comply with USDA organic regulations and produce commercially viable organic stevia crops have paid off, say bosses at Sweet Green Fields (SGF) after launching their...
The taste of stevia-derived sweeteners has come a long way in just a few short years, and the major stevia suppliers are now focusing on cutting sugar by half in mainstream soft drinks.
Stevia sweeteners have appeared in about 1200 new products in Europe in the past two years – and 700 of those were launched in 2013, according to Cargill’s business development leader for Truvia, Olivier du Châtelier.
Stevia specialist Steviva Ingredients has developed an organic syrup combining blue agave nectar and stevia extract that is suitable for formulators looking to cut calories and maintain clean labels in sauces and dressings, bars, beverages and baked goods.
A patent application filed by PepsiCo describes methods of enhancing the solubility of steviol glycoside Reb-D such that it can be used in higher amounts in beverages and beverage concentrates, overcoming a key formulation challenge.
Leading stevia supplier PureCircle says “investments and assets are in place from agriculture to manufacturing” to be ready to commercialize two next generation stevia products - Reb D and Reb X - in 2014.
The pace of progress on the joint development program of Cargill and Evolva to produce fermentation-based steviol glycosides is ‘exceeding expectations’ with the resulting ingredients potentially hitting the market earlier than expected.
Flavour and fragrance ingredient supplier Treatt has created a new tea formula adapted to the specific flavour of stevia in response to a growing market trend for natural sweeteners.
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.
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.
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.
