Stevia
Traceability and building better sustainability
Today’s consumers are emotionally increasingly interested in knowing exactly where their food comes from and how it is prepared. The inclusion of sustainable and traceable origin ingredients are increasingly important to food and beverage manufacturers formulating for success.
Label-friendly stevia, which has been used within the recipes of over 30,000 products, is ubiquitous to the new product formulations of food and beverage manufacturers committed to reducing sugar. This is because stevia is a a non-caloric sweetener from natural origin. It is a powerful plant-based, zero-calorie solution with a sugar-like taste, verified to be non-GM.
Facilitating supply chain confidence
According to a global consumer survey, 66% of consumers find product formulation appealing when using fewer ingredients[1]. Food and beverage manufacturers are under increasing pressure to provide more transparency around their ingredient stories, from farm to finished ingredient. In Europe, regulation (EC) 178/2002, on general food law, requires that food and beverage manufacturers must track their ingredients and products by one step forward and one step back.
Ingredient suppliers are striving to be vertically integrated enabling them to have complete control over and transparency in their supply chain. Thus, showcasing authenticity and complete traceability to the stevia sustainable sourcing story, including the impact on people and the planet, and providing safety, security and integrity across each step of the stevia production process.
PureCircle™ by Ingredion for instance, has ownership and visibility over every single step of the stevia process – from producing seedlings to farming and everything in-between – and is designed to optimise for the best taste and build better sustainability.
PureCircle by Ingredion’s vertically integrated supply chain begins by contracting directly with its global network of farmers and growing partners instead of using transactional, commodity leaf sourcing, making their relationship transparent and efficient. Cultivating close, long-standing ties, PureCircle by Ingredion actively invests in its farmers and growing partners. This includes providing its farmers with the seedlings for planting, training, education and resources for them to successfully make their operations more effective, thereby reducing waste and increasing earning potential for them to invest in their communities. Additionally, it puts in place requirements for ethical farming practices and techniques, fair pay and fair labour practices.
After planting PureCircle appointed seedlings, its farmers then harvest the crop, before supplying the stevia leaf to PureCircle, tracked in accordance with their signed contract and are paid directly. Thus, providing sustainable income for farmers and their families. Each truck or container of leaves is then assigned a batch number which enables traceability from the harvest, through processing and purification and onto customers.
Cultivating superior stevia
The stevia leaf contains over 60 different molecules, also known as steviol glycosides. Reb M is the most sugar like molecule in the leaf, however, conventional stevia plants only have trace amounts of the ingredient.
PureCircle by Ingredion is strengthening the stevia plant’s sustainability proposition through innovation. The Company cultivates new leaf varieties, which yield a higher percentage of specific steviol glycosides in comparison with conventional stevia leaf varieties. This helps maximize the output of each stevia leaf and minimizing waste material.
Additionally, PureCircle has invested in new technologies to scale steviol glycosides, like Reb M, which appear in smaller quantities in the plant. The Company’s bioconversion process starts with stevia leaf extract, and with the help of an enzyme, mimics the plant’s maturation process to produce select, non-GMO stevia ingredients. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) recently issued a positive safety opinion for PureCircle’s stevia ingredients produced through bioconversion. Providing more options for food and beverage companies to utilize the best tasting stevia ingredients[*].
Through a joint venture with Amryis, PureCircle also offers Fermented Sugarcane Reb M. Fermented Sugarcane Reb M is made through a patented fermenting process, which starts with sugarcane and converts it to a high purity, no calorie sweetener. These new technologies make rare stevia ingredients accessible for food and beverage companies of all sizes and more sustainably sourced*.
Continuous investment in stevia
Leading stevia suppliers also support the continual investment in studying stevia and its potential uses beyond sweetening, which results in the employment of individuals throughout the entire supply chain. This is because beyond stevia’s ability to provide sweetness, stevia-based flavour modifiers can also provide several benefits to optimise taste performance. Not only do they offer much more than optimizing sweetness quality, but they also build back the texture and mouthfeel that’s often lost after sugar reduction in certain applications, block bitterness, enhance savoury notes, and can create a broad spectrum of taste sensations for a range of applications, while enabling ‘natural flavour’ labelling.
By mapping the full genome, PureCircle is able to innovate and make new discoveries within the leaf. This includes the adoption of new stevia production technologies to scale less common steviol glycosides, reducing processing and waste materials in order to facilitate the best tasting stevia ingredients. Additionally, it is able to convert additional leaf material into functional ingredients like antioxidants and using minimal waste material as fertilizer.
Powering traceability and sustainability
Food and beverage manufacturers are under increasing scrutiny from consumers to provide transparency on not only what their ingredients and products come from, but what their sustainability proposition is. Therefore, it has never been more important to work with leading stevia suppliers that are able to not only tell a transparent ingredient story about how and where their stevia comes from, but provide peace of mind that they are actively supporting farming communities and making a sustainable impact on consumers and the planet.
References:
1 Global Data: Q1 2017 Global Consumer Survey
* The commercial availability of stevia produced via bioconversion and fermentation differs across each region
www.ingredion.com
Ingredion Incorporated (NYSE: INGR) headquartered in the suburbs of Chicago, is a leading global ingredient solutions provider serving customers in more than 120 countries. With 2020 annual net sales of $6 billion, the Company turns grains, fruits, vegetables and other plant-based materials into value-added ingredient solutions for the food, beverage, animal nutrition, brewing and industrial markets. With Ingredion Idea Labs® innovation centers around the world and approximately 12,000 employees, the Company co-creates with customers and fulfills its purpose of bringing the potential of people, nature and technology together to make life better.
Visit ingredion.com for more information and the latest Company news.
PureCircle by Ingredion is the leading producer and innovator of great-tasting stevia sweeteners and flavour modifiers for the global beverage and food industry. PureCircle combines advanced R&D with full vertical integration from farm to high-quality, great-tasting innovative stevia ingredients.
The Company collaborates with farmers who grow its proprietary stevia varieties, and with food and beverage companies which seek to improve their low- and no-calorie formulations using plant-based, non-GMO ingredients. For more information, visit: www.purecircle.com
