The debut of a next generation stevia solution
14 Aug 2018 | Cargill
Cargill’s broad portfolio of sweeteners is claimed to help customers deliver “great tasting products,” whether they are taking out sugar or doing so for clean label purposes. Cargill recently introduced their EverSweet stevia extract formulation to the market. “Cargill has set a new benchmark for sweetness without calories with our EverSweet sweetener,” says Andrew Ohmes, Global Stevia Business Leader for Cargill. “Our goal has always been to address our customers’ needs to make lower-calorie products that taste great and are affordable to all.” The EverSweet sweetener is claimed to deliver the best of the same sweetness in the stevia leaf. The next-generation sweetener is promoted on the grounds of taste with up to 100 percent sugar replacement possible.
Run wires to the IFT Food Expo in Chicago and I'm here with Andy Omas from Cargill, and Cargill are recently introduced to the market their Eversweet products.
Andy, what, what is Eversweet and what are the business plans for this, ingredient?
Right, so, part of our portfolio within stevia, we've added Eversweet, which is a fermentation-based stevia glycoside primarily focusing on minor glycosides, RevM and Rev D.
We've chosen to use fermentation to develop this product because it just doesn't occur.
Those two stevia glycosides don't occur in the leaf at a high enough level to achieve the volumes necessary and the cost point for our customers to be successful, but we really want to bring these to market to deliver great taste and reduced and no calorie solutions.
Today we We have two different prototypes here at the booth.
One is a craft soda on this hot day in Chicago, it's a little bit of a funky, different flavor, pear tarragon, refreshing, sweet, clean taste of Eversweet in that, and then a reduced sugar, drinkable yogurt.
So a lot of yogurts have a lot of sugar in them.
With Eversweet you're able to reduce the sugar and maintain.
That great taste and mouthfeel using other cardio technologies to deliver what customers are expecting.
How does this ingredient compare to the stevia that were produced several years ago, because it's a real evolution within this?
Absolutely an evolution.
The thing I like to tell people is if you haven't tasted stevia in the last 2 years, you haven't tasted stevia because it's changed so much.
When stevia came on the market, it focused primarily on rebbe products which worked really in tabletops and some flavored waters, but as you go to zero calorie solutions, they just don't work very.
You get some bitterness, some other off-taste.
So we developed Viaec, which is actually a leaf-based product using different combinations of glycosides to reduce bitterness, increase sweetness, to reduce linger.
But Eversweet takes that one step farther.
So now you're able.
Really get that up front punch of sweetness like you would from sugar with no bitterness and very little linger.
Is there still room for development within the space?
Can we expect to see a further evolution of stevia?
Absolutely.
Innovation never stops.
There's more than 70 glycosides in the leaf, and we're looking for other ways that they can combine with each other and with other ingredients to deliver better solubility, better taste, and better overall performance.
But I think Eversweet is Leaps and bounds above where we've been in the past.
And you highlighted beverages and dairy applications here in your concepts.
Are there other possibilities for this for Eversweet?
Anywhere you use sweetness.
The great thing about stevia glycosides, they're stable.
You can bake with them, so bakery, confection, dairy, beverage.
We're seeing a lot of opportunities driven by a lot of the pressures we're seeing in the market and our customers are facing.
Andy, thank you very much.
Thank you.
