Dive Brief:
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Ingredion, Inc. is now the exclusive global distributor of SweeGen, Inc.'s nature-based stevia sweeteners everywhere but China, according to Food Business News.
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Stevia, a plant-based sweetener 200 times sweeter than sugar, meets regulatory compliance in the U.S. and the EU so far, giving it market-development potential across the world.
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“Along with our current sweetener offerings, these great-tasting sweeteners give us even more options to help our customers develop on-trend products that meet consumer demands for healthier foods and beverages with less sugar," chief innovation officer for Ingredion Anthony DeLio told Food Business News.
Dive Insight:
The South American stevia plant has been used commercially in Japan since the 1970s, when scientists learned how to extract purified steviosides from the plant. In the 1980s, Coca-Cola began an eight-year wait to have a stevia-based soft drink ingredient approved by the FDA. When it was approved in December of 2008, the race was on to see how many ways stevia could be used.
In 2014, Mintel predicted that high-intensity sweeteners derived from stevia plant extracts would dominate the market by 2017. The global stevia market had an estimated market size of $337.7 million in 2015, according to a report by Grand View Research, and continues to grow.
What's giving stevia-based sweetener sales such a boost? Nutritionist Jonny Bowden, author of "The Healthiest Meals on Earth," told WebMD: “It tastes like sugar, and has almost no glycemic index, which means it won't spike your blood sugar.”
Stevia doesn't have the unpleasant aftertaste associated with other sugar alternatives, either. It's also more heat stable, meaning it is more suitable for a wider range of baked goods than most of its competitors. Because of this, the new Nutrition Facts panel that will label amounts of sugar — bringing increasing popularity of high-intensity alternatives, and ever-growing consumer interest in healthy, natural and low-sugar or sugar-free foods, stevia-based products continue to dominate the market.