Ingredion’s PureCircle granted Chinese plant breeders’ rights for stevia

17 Apr 2024 --- Ingredion’s stevia subsidiary PureCircle has received plant breeders’ rights (PBR) for its proprietary stevia plant varietal from Chinese regulators in a move that allows the company to expand in China. This comes amid a spike in consumer demand for low-sugar food and beverages, a space increasingly targeted by ingredient suppliers worldwide.

PureCircle holds one of the largest portfolios of stevia patents and aims to work with Chinese authorities to protect and enforce its PBR and other intellectual property to uphold the integrity and benefit of sustainable and ethically sourced stevia.

Ingredion underscores that stevia producers that do not have a license from PureCircle to this proprietary varietal “might be impacted.”

“Receiving PBR for our proprietary stevia varietal is a testament to years of plant breeding and development by the PureCircle organization,” says Nate Yates, CEO of PureCircle.

“The entire industry has benefited from these innovations and the PBR grant allows us to begin the process to be fairly recognized as the innovation leader in stevia genetics and varietal development.” 

Innovating stevia varietals
PureCircle claims to be “the first” to map the stevia plant genome, enabling the ability to trace and identify proprietary varietals by unique genomic fingerprints.

 The “clean-tasting” stevia sweetener formulator has invested a “tremendous” amount of time and resources into its stevia breeding program, highlights Kurt Callaghan, chief of staff at PureCircle.

Stevia, a native South American plant, is pegged as “nature’s zero-calorie sustainable sweetener.” (Image credit: Ingredion).“We expect those companies utilizing our stevia varietals to do so properly and lawfully and formally recognize PureCircle as the stevia varietal R&D provider to the industry.”

He further urges customers to ensure their stevia supply chains are not violating PureCircle’s intellectual property rights.

Last year, the stevia producer was granted the rights to a new plant variety for stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) named “PCS-13”, highlighting its efforts at cultivating stevia varietals with “optimized yields” and steviol glycoside content. 

PureCircle’s stevia ingredients also expanded to Europe previously, with approval of its range of steviol glycosides produced via bioconversion — Reb D, Reb M and Reb AM.

Low environmental impact
In 2022, Ingredion published a peer-reviewed Sweeteners Life Cycle Assessment, which identified the environmental impacts of stevia and various caloric sweeteners. 

The study found stevia to contribute significantly less to environmental impact compared to other common caloric sweeteners like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup. Notably, roughly two-thirds of the total impact comes from agriculture. 

PureCircle is working toward minimizing environmental impacts in China and globally even further by continuously improving the efficiency of its stevia plants, underscores the company.

Meanwhile, Chinese natural sweetener supplier Howtian recently conducted a Life Cycle Assessment of its core stevia product lines to scrutinize key environmental impact measures such as carbon and water footprint. This study revealed that Howtian’s Rebaudioside A 97 outperforms conventional sugar in sustainability metrics.

Sugar-slashing gains ground
As consumers turn to comfort foods and healthy indulgence for some respite from hectic lifestyles, climate change and the cost of living crisis, there is a surge of development of innovative sweeteners that can replicate sugar’s sensory and functional properties while reducing its negative health impacts, Innova Market Insights reveals.

Consumers seek healthy indulgence in times of uncertainty and rising costs of living (Image credit: Ingredion).Data analyzed by the market researcher for F&B launches with sweeteners from 2021 versus 2023 indicates that sugar-free claims accounted for 14% of the launches, with glycerol and sucralose being the top ingredients (26% each), followed by sorbitol (21%), acesulfame K (20%) and stevia (17%).

Ingredient manufacturers are increasingly testing the waters when it comes to sugar reduction trends worldwide. Consumer demands for healthier products are fueling this rising interest.

Earlier this year, dsm-firmenich and Cargill entered into a partnership to develop non-artificial, calorie-free sweetening solutions using a technology that replicates the stevia leaf-based Reb M and D via fermentation and helps F&B formulators meet sugar reduction and clean label demands without compromising taste.

Moreover, as brands move away from artificial sweeteners, Sweegen is utilizing new-generation stevia and the sweet protein brazzein in their Sweetensify flavors for taste modulation technology. Brazzein and other sweet proteins bind with various taste receptors on the tongue that are linked to the perception of sweetness and umami, the company previously told Food Ingredients First.

Meanwhile, US-based food scientists formulated sugar-reduced chocolates by replacing up to 25% sucrose in chocolate with oat flour to reduce total sugar levels by 13.5% without any adverse impact on texture or consumer acceptance.

Last year, the stevia industry faced mislabeling issues regarding Reb M stevia sold under false claims intentionally. Calling out the malpractice, Sweegen offered authenticity tests to help companies verify the integrity of their stevia products and maintain consumer confidence and loyalty.

By Insha Naureen