Stevia Use In Beverages and Foods Continues to Increase
PureCircle, the world’s leading producer and innovator of stevia sweeteners for the global beverage and food industries, reports that the use of stevia leaf sweetener in beverages and food products continues to expand. Global launches of beverage and food products containing stevia have grown steadily since 2012, and in 2017 alone, increased more than +10% vs. 2016. That data, and all data contained herein, is from Mintel Group.
Looking at results separately for beverages and foods, launches of beverage products containing stevia grew 11% from 2016 to 2017. Launches of food products containing stevia grew 10% from 2016 to 2017.
As this data shows, stevia is quickly becoming an important ingredient for beverage and food companies.
Top categories for launches containing stevia in 2017 included snacks, juice drinks, dairy, carbonated soft drinks and confectionery.
Producers of food and beverage products designed for kids (age 5-12) are also making more use of stevia, as it enables them to formulate products with no- or reduced-calories using a plant-based sweetener. In 2017, launches of products containing stevia with a claim for kids (aged 5-12) increased 16% from 2016.
Major companies launching products with stevia leaf sweetener last year included the following (in alphabetical order): Calbee Foods, The Coca-Cola Co, Groupe Danone, Grupo Bimbo, Kraft Heinz, Nestle, PepsiCo, Seven & i Holdings; and Unilever. Due largely to PureCircle’s research, development and innovation, stevia offers beverage and food companies a zero-calorie, plant-based sweetener that has a taste profile similar to sugar.
Stevia is a zero-calorie sweetener made from a plant. Other major zero-calorie – or high-intensity sweeteners (aspartame, sucralose and acesulfame potassium) are not. The usage of stevia leaf sweeteners has grown dramatically. In 2012, stevia was used in 16% of food and beverage products launched with high intensity or diet sweeteners. By 2017, that number has risen to 28%. Aspartame, however, is becoming less widely used. In 2012, aspartame was used in 36% of new foods and beverages utilizing high intensity sweeteners. By 2017, that number was down to 25%. That means, looking at foods and beverages launched with high intensity sweeteners in 2017, plant-based stevia was used more than aspartame.
The beverage and food product launches with stevia are occurring worldwide with all global regions participating. The top two regions were Asia/Pacific (40%) and Europe (22%), followed by Latin America, North America and Middle East/Africa.
The story of stevia is evolving. Not long ago, it was a little known, plant-based zero-calorie sweetener – basically one ingredient — that worked well in some beverage and food applications. But today, we offer a range of stevia leaf sweetener ingredients with sugar-like taste and zero calories. These from-nature sweeteners — often used in combinations with each other — work well in a wide variety of beverages and foods, and that is advantageous for beverage and food companies. They have an increasing need for just such an ingredient, because consumers, health experts and governments have become increasingly concerned about obesity and diabetes, and consumers have become increasingly health and wellness conscious.
PureCircle works with food and beverage companies to make formulation with stevia simple and has the capacity to supply ample amounts of the best-tasting stevia sweeteners using its proprietary Starleaf plants.
For more information on PureCircle, stevia and Starleaf, please see: www.purecircle.com
