Cargill Introduces Next-Generation Stevia-Based Sweetener Portfolio

07 Mar 2014 --- Cargill has announced the introduction of its new ViaTech line of stevia-based sweeteners, which enable food and beverage manufacturers to achieve optimal sweetness and significant sugar reduction.

Part of what sets the ViaTech portfolio apart from previous stevia-based sweeteners is the use of Cargill’s proprietary taste prediction model, which leads to clean sweetness in even some of the most difficult-to-perfect zero-calorie and reduced-calorie food and beverage formulations.

Stevia sweeteners continue to drive growth and innovation in the food and beverage industry, with more new beverage launches using stevia sweeteners than any other high potency sweetener, accoridng to Innova Market Insights data. Cargill has led the way in bringing stevia sweeteners to market and continues to lead the innovation of the category. With the ViaTech portfolio, Cargill builds upon previous stevia-based sweetener technologies by improving taste performance at high usage levels.

“Our customers are looking for new solutions to broaden their product offerings with stevia sweeteners, and it’s not just about finding a single steviol glycoside that works for everything,” said Scott Fabro, global business development director, Cargill Corn Milling North America. “Cargill designed the ViaTech ingredients to deliver an optimal sweet taste at high use levels, which has been a limitation with previous stevia-based products. Our proprietary model allows us to predict in a precise way the right combination of steviol glycosides to deliver high quality sweet taste.”

Cargill scientists have spent hundreds of thousands of hours working with the stevia leaf to understand how the different steviol glycosides found within it work alone and in combination. This approach allows Cargill developers to focus on not only optimizing taste and sweetness, but also on creating ingredients that enable a sensible total formulation cost for food and beverage manufacturers.

“As we bring new stevia-based innovations to market that enable product developers to work in high sweetness formulations such as carbonated soft drinks, we always keep in mind that our solutions must be commercially viable from a cost-in-use perspective,” said Melanie Goulson, sweetness applications leader, Cargill.

Cargill partners globally with companies in the food and beverage industry to formulate stevia sweeteners for a variety of products. The ViaTech brand adds to Cargill’s extensive portfolio of stevia based ingredients. Cargill’s Truvia stevia-based sweetener also is used in a variety of applications, such as sports drinks, teas, juices, and yogurts for a variety of companies in North and South America, Europe and Asia.