Heineken’s Finnish business Hartwall claims to have launched the EU’s first alcoholic beverage sweetened with stevia onto the nation’s market this month in the form of a ‘light long’ RTD.
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.
Regulatory restrictions and lessons learned from other markets are shaping the way food manufacturers are using stevia-derived sweeteners in Europe, according to supplier PureCircle.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
The Coca-Cola Company has confirmed to BeverageDaily.com that it has launched stevia-sweetened varieties of Sprite and Nestea in France with 30% less sugar – the first roll-out using its headline brands on a major market since European Commission (EC)...
While traders “jumping in and out of the stevia marketplace” are disrupting prices and standards by peddling some “awful” extracts, high-quality stevia suppliers in it for the long-haul will ultimately prosper, according to one leading player.
Taste profile and cost are the biggest potential obstacles to widespread stevia uptake within the European Union (EU) soft drinks industry, an analyst has warned.
Cargill is looking beyond beverage to dairy as it flags up pending product launches for Truvia in both table-top and as an ingredient on the EU market next year.
In-depth understanding of how stevia works with different flavour systems, bulking agents, and other ingredients is required to optimise NPD or reformulation of existing food and drinks using the natural sweetener.
Coca-Cola said it has no reason to drop the artificial sweetener aspartame from its low or zero calorie beverage brands in the European market as it welcomes last week’s approval by the European Commission for the use of the natural sweetener stevia in...
Post-market monitoring of stevia use levels in food and drink products could see the European Commission broaden the current authorised food categories, claims a stevia trade body.
Just before the adoption of a regulation by European Commission (EC) on November 11 to approve the sale and use of steviol glycosides, Wild's senior vice president of business development, Fabiana Matucci, told BeverageDaily.com how she thought stevia...
Early feedback from trials of Pepsi Next - PepsiCo’s third attempt to create a successful mid-calorie cola - has been “very favorable”, bosses have revealed.
Research conducted by stevia partners Cargill and Associated British Foods subsidiary Silver Spoon has found UK consumers are keen for natural alternatives to artificial low-calorie sweeteners.
The Commission has agreed to allow the continued use of stevia in France until the EU approves the sweetener, providing relief to companies worried that the extension would end before EU-wide authorisation is granted.
November 2011 should see steviol glycosides get regulatory backing for use in food in drink products in the European market, according to a European Commission (EC) representative.
Hype about the promise of stevia created inflated expectations – but the market has evolved in response, according to stevia supplier PureCircle’s vice president of global marketing Jason Hecker.
Flavor ingredients firm Senomyx has been granted a US patent for two bitter blocker flavor modulators intended to mask bitter notes associated with several common food and beverage ingredients.
Steviol glycosides produced by fermentation could be on the market in the coming years due to advances made by Swiss company Evolva and Californian R&D partner Abunda Nutrition, which it plans to acquire.
Stevia supplier GLG Life Tech has partnered with International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) to extract and supply Rebaudioside C (Reb C) for use by IFF as a flavor modulator, the company said.
Q: What do the car industry and reduced calorie beverages have in common? A: Tribology, or the science of interactive surfaces in relative motion, according to Cargill, which is using it to determine the textural characteristics to be rebuilt in reduced...
A new joint venture for stevia between a French sugar producer, a flavour firm, and an ingredients supplier will offer manufacturers ‘leaf to spoon’ service for the sweetener.
Sweetening carbonated beverages with stevia, and reb A in particular, does not produce any steviol aglycone, a potentially toxic compound, says a new study which supports the safety and stability of the sweetener.
Redpoint Bio and International Flavors and Fragrances (IFF) have achieved FEMA GRAS status for their Reb C sweetness enhancer, allowing it to be used in a variety of applications in the United States and elsewhere.
Suppliers and stakeholders in the stevia industry are organising to maintain standards and pursue scientific enquiry into the use of stevia sweeteners. But two trade organisations have been announced this week, with very different membership criteria...
Major stevia player PureCircle has won a GRAS (generally recognized as safe) letter of no objection from the Food and Drug Administration for a blend it is aiming at products seeking partial sugar and calorie reduction.
Stevia supplier GLG Life Tech has signed a five-year deal with Sugar Australia for distribution and marketing of its stevia-derived sweeteners for the Australian and New Zealand food and beverage markets.
Beverages formulated with stevia are preferred by consumers over similar products sweetened with sugar or other common high intensity sweeteners, says new research from Croatia.
Data on the market penetration of stevia in beverages outside Europe suggests that anticipated EU approval may be only the first step for the natural sweetener on a long road to commercial significance.
Stevia suppliers have welcomed EFSA’s positive scientific opinion on the safety of stevia-derived sweeteners, saying it paves the way for generating more consumer interest in the natural sweetener.
EU approval for natural sweeteners from the stevia leaf has moved one step closer after scientists at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) gave them a clean bill of health.
GLG Life Tech has reported a 323 percent increase in revenue during 2009 as food and drink manufacturers continue to develop and launch new products containing its stevia-derived sweeteners.
PureCircle and Imperial Sugar have launched a joint venture to offer sugar and stevia combinations to the food and beverage industry as it looks to meet consumer demand for natural lower calorie products.
A Yerba Maté beverage is set to be one of the first products on French shelves sweetened with stevia-derived rebaudioside-A (Reb-A), recalling a traditional use of the plant by Guarani Indians in Paraguay.
The French government has approved the use of stevia sweetener Reb A in table top sweeteners, and raised the levels at which it can be used in a range of no added sugar food and beverage products.
Purac has become the latest company to release a natural flavor masker to help drinks makers deal with the reported bitter or licorice-like aftertaste sometimes experienced with stevia sweeteners.
Sweetener company PureCircle has raised $67.18m through share placing to invest in the development of its natural sweetener products made from stevia leaves.
Stevia sweeteners have already hit on the radar screens of one in three moms, a PureCircle survey indicates – but the next step from awareness is building a good impression.
By Sneha Pasricha, research analyst, Frost & Sullivan
Aspartame and sugar are likely to be the main substitution targets for emerging stevia sweeteners, and beverages the initial main application, writes Sneha Pasricha, a research analyst for Frost & Sullivan, in the first of two guest articles.
