With the white sugar becoming a villain in to day's health landscape, there is a constant endeavor to find alternate sweeteners that do not contribute to calories in formulated foods. Also there are millions of people suffering from diabetes and they are in need of a substitute to natural sugar that will not tax their insulin need. While there are many synthetic sugar substitutes like Saccharine, Aspartame, Acesulfamate, etc which are man-made, Stevia Glycosides isolated from the Stevia plant leaves stands out as a unique natural sweetener with zero food calories. Though the leaves of the plant were used for centuries in the South American continent, safety of the isolated and purified preparations has been an issue under consideration for quite some time in the past. Now that many countries and international agencies have found these products safe, there appears to be increasing interest from the food industry in using them in many preparations, especially the health foods. Probably sensing the huge business potential ahead, manufacturers are trying to bring some order into this unorganized industry through forming of associations with definite objectives.
Suppliers and stakeholders in the stevia industry are organising to maintain standards and pursue scientific enquiry into the use of stevia sweeteners. But two trade organisations have been announced this week, with very different membership criteria and ostensibly different aims.Stevia, a South American plant in the sunflower family, has atttracted massive interest in the last two years following FDA GRAS (generally recognised as safe) of high purity Reb A as a sweetener in the United States in late 2008. The European Food Safety Authority has published a positive safety opinion on extracts will a high purity of all steviol glycosides, and approval is expected from the European Commission in the first half of 2011. The formation of the International Stevia Council was announced yesterday, and is open to companies that process and/or manufacture and market stevia products in accordance with the JECFA purity specifications on steviol glycosides. Its main focus is on safety, quality and stakeholder understanding. Founding members are Cargill, Corn Products, GLG Life Tech, Granular, Morita Kagaku Kogyo, PureCircle, Sunwin, Sweet Green Fields, SweetLeaf Sweeteners, Verdure Sciences Europe and the Whole Earth Sweetener Company. It has its headquarters in Brussels and an office in Washington DC, USA. Meanwhile, the organising committee of Malta Strategic conferences has also announced the formation of a group to be called the World Stevia Organisation. Expected to be formally launched at the Stevia and Salt Reduction Conference in Malta at the end of this month, this organisation will be open to stakeholders throughout the entire supply chain, including agriculture, academia, manufacturing at all production stages, food and beverage companies, regulators, consumers, practitioners and media. The president and board will also be elected at the Malta conference.
Recent interest in China points to the possibility of using Stevia glycosides as a sugar extender where in natural sugar is blended with the Stevia sugar so that lesser sugar can provide the required sweetness. China produces one of the cheapest Stevia products, though its purity is not as high as that made elsewhere. Probably the International Stevia Council and World Stevia Organization will have to work on a common platform to evolve uniform standards and specifications and bring in Chinese producers also to prevent confusion regarding the quality of market products amongst the consumers.
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