Dive Brief:
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Stevia supplier PureCircle has developed natural flavor enhancers from the stevia leaf to boost the taste of vanilla and cocoa, according to a company release.
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The new ingredients can be labeled as “natural flavors” on ingredient lists and allow food companies to use less vanilla or cocoa, both of which have experienced extreme price volatility. The flavor enhancers are intended to give companies a plant-based option to help manage limited supplies of these ingredients, while also reducing sugar.
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According to Mintel’s Global New Products Database, the number of new products containing cocoa has increased 16% over the past five years, while vanilla-containing products are up 31%.
Dive Insight:
The move to enhance vanilla and cocoa with stevia-derived ingredients may seem like a new direction for PureCircle, but it is a natural extension of the company’s existing portfolio. Much of its work has focused on creating a sugar-like sweet taste from stevia — and that involves a deep understanding of the flavor masking and flavor enhancing properties of different compounds within the stevia leaf.
Its sweeteners have moved on from an early emphasis on rebaudioside A, which is the sweetest and most abundant of the natural sweet-tasting compounds in the stevia leaf. It has since developed stevia sweeteners based on less abundant extracts, such as the rebaudiosides D and M, which are said to taste more like sugar.
The cocoa and vanilla markets have both been volatile, so supplying flavor enhancers for these ingredients should appeal to manufacturers looking to manage costs. Cocoa prices hit more than $3,000 a ton in early 2016, encouraging chocolate makers to invest in more sustainable cocoa production. Meanwhile, shortages have caused vanilla prices to soar over the past few years, from about $25 a kilogram in 2012 to $225 a kilogram in 2016.
The fact that PureCircle’s new flavor enhancers are plant-based is also likely to appeal to companies that want to emphasize their natural credentials — a positioning that also appeals to a large number of consumers.
