Stevia science report assesses development behind the natural sweetener

25 Jul 2018 --- An in-depth review of the latest stevia science has been published in the Journal of Nutrition exploring its benefits and future potential as stevia adoption in global food and beverage products increases. Nutritionist scientists, healthcare practitioners and consumers have shown a growing interest in stevia science and safety as its popularity continues to grow.

The Journal of Nutrition recently published a comprehensive review of the latest stevia science in its July which was authored by several scientists including members of the PureCircle Stevia Institute (PCSI) advisory board.

The article “Stevia Leaf to Stevia Sweetener: Exploring Its Science, Benefits, and Future Potential” details the current state of the science for stevia, its safety and potential health benefits, as well as the potential for future research and applications.

It also covers a broad spectrum of important topics related to stevia including metabolism, safety, dietary exposure, impact on blood glucose and insulin concentrations, energy intake and weight management, naturality and processing, taste and sensory properties, regulatory status, consumer insights and market trends.

The premier journal in its field, Journal of Nutrition is an official monthly publication of the American Society for Nutrition (ASN) and the first scientific journal created solely for the publication of nutrition research. 

It publishes peer-reviewed original research papers on experimental nutrition, critical reviews and proceedings from internationally recognized conferences.

The stevia article is a review and proceedings of the stevia symposium held at the ASN's annual conference in 2017 led by the Global Stevia Institute, now known as the PureCircle Stevia Institute.

“Given the rising global concerns around obesity and diabetes continuing, stevia serves as an excellent tool for sugar and energy reduction, and an alternative for those looking for a plant-based solution,” said Dr. Samuel, lead author and Director of PCSI. 

“PCSI's mission is to advance the science of stevia and educate all stakeholder communities globally. This publication is an important milestone for furthering this mission.”

Meanwhile, PureCircle is expanding its capacity to supply significantly more Reb M to global beverage and food companies. Using beverage sweetening as an equivalized example, PureCircle can now supply enough Reb M to sweeten approximately 500 million cases of zero-calorie carbonated soft drinks. The company continues to build production capacity and estimates that three years from now, it could supply enough Reb M to sweeten 1 billion cases of zero-calorie carbonated soft drinks or the equivalent in beverages and foods using Reb M as the sweetener.

The story of stevia is evolving. Not long ago, stevia was a little known, plant-based zero-calorie sweetener – basically one ingredient, Reb A – that worked well in some beverage and food applications. But today, we offer Reb M and other stevia leaf sweetener ingredients with sugar-like taste and zero calories. These from-nature sweeteners – often used in combinations with each other – work well in a wide variety of beverages and foods, and that is advantageous for beverage and food companies. They have an increasing need for just such an ingredient because consumers, health experts and governments have become increasingly concerned about obesity and diabetes and consumers have also become increasingly health conscious.

Last month, FoodIngredientsFirst reported that German-based biotechnology company, c-LEcta, together with an unnamed “leading ingredient supplier” developed a new method to help expand production of a new plant-based sweetener.

Speculation from the industry had been that stevia supplier PureCircle was the other partner involved in this project. However, PureCircle neither confirmed or denied a partnership with c-LEcta, but did send the following statement: “We are quickly expanding the availability of the best-tasting stevia sweeteners. We are using two ways to do that. We are rapidly expanding our planting of Starleaf. Starleaf is our proprietary variety of stevia which contains much greater amounts of the best tasting stevia sweeteners like Reb D and Reb M.”  

You can read the full story here.