PureCircle Welcomes Codex Adoption of Stevia as a New Food Additive

This is the last outstanding major approval that will unlock a number of important markets such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines.

7/11/2011 --- PureCircle, the world’s largest producer and marketer of high purity stevia welcomes Codex Alimentarius Commission adoption of proposed maximum levels for steviol glycosides.

PureCircle notes that during the Codex meeting this week in Geneva, Switzerland, the Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) adopted all the proposed draft maximum levels for steviol glycosides as submitted for adoption by the Codex Committee on Food Additives (CCFA). The CAC official report will be issued after the end of the meeting on July 9th.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission, or Codex, was created by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Its main purposes are to protect the health of consumers and to ensure fair practices in international trade in food through the development of food standards, codes of practice, guidelines and other recommendations. Codex standards and guidelines are developed by committees, which are open to all UN member countries. The Codex standards and guidelines are then used by many countries as the benchmark for their own internal approval processes.

As part of the adoption, the approved maximum use levels across all major food and beverage categories have now been defined. This is the last outstanding major approval that will unlock a number of important markets such as India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Philippines. Such countries look for the Codex adoption of a food ingredient to support their evaluation and approval. PureCircle has been actively engaged in these markets on regulatory approval and market development.

Commenting on the adoption by the Codex Alimentarius Commission, PureCircle CEO Magomet Malsagov said, “This has been an important week for approval and adoption of stevia as a mainstream food ingredient around the globe.  Early this week, we had a positive vote by the EU Standing Committee recommending steviol glycosides in Europe.  We now welcome this week’s Codex adoption which will help to open all remaining new markets for PureCircle’s high purity stevia products around the world.”