These Plant-Based Sweeteners Are Non-GMO and Are 'GRAS' as
Defined by the F.D.A.
CHICAGO, April 2, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PureCircle (LSE:
PURE), the world's leading producer and innovator of stevia
ingredients, announces that its recent advances now enable it to
significantly boost production of the stevia sweeteners which have
the most sugar-like taste and which are most sought after by
beverage and food companies.
The stevia leaf is a miracle of nature. It contains many
sweetener variants, including those known as Reb A, Reb D and Reb
M. Each is an intense sweetener, enabling production of low-
and zero-calorie beverages and foods, sweetened with an ingredient
from a plant.
Reb A was introduced as an ingredient to the food and beverage
industries in 2008 and worked in some beverages and foods, but had
some taste limitations. However, the newer stevia sweetener
variants, Reb D and Reb M, have taste profiles quite similar to
sugar and are valuable ingredients for the food and beverage
companies.
Until now, a challenge has been that Reb D and Reb M are present
only in relatively small amounts in the conventional stevia
plant. PureCircle's innovation has addressed that in two
ways.
First, PureCircle has developed a proprietary strain of the
stevia plant that it calls Starleaf™ stevia. Starleaf stevia
plants contain greater amounts of Reb D and Reb M than conventional
stevia plants. As previously announced this year, PureCircle
is massively ramping up its planting of Starleaf stevia.
In addition, to further enable it to provide food and beverage
companies with significant amounts of Reb D and Reb M, PureCircle
now has two ways of producing those stevia sweetener
products. PureCircle continues to produce Reb D and Reb M by
extracting them from its proprietary Starleaf plants.
But now it can also produce Reb D and Reb M in much greater
scale, directly using the more abundant Reb A in the production
process. The Reb D and Reb M produced from the two processes
are from the stevia leaf and are identical in great
taste.
A number of consumer companies are already using PureCircle's
Reb D and Reb M in their products. PureCircle's expansion in
production of Reb D and Reb M will increase the supply of these
stevia sweeteners with the most sugar-like taste. That will
help the beverage and food companies get access to an ingredient
they need, as they continue to respond to their consumers' desires
for more zero- and low-calorie products using plant-based
sweeteners.
PureCircle has already begun ramped-up production of Reb D and
Reb M. PureCircle CEO Maga
Malsagov says, "large-scale volumes are now available at
attractive prices." He adds that the product is "consistently
of the highest quality."
All of PureCircle's stevia sweeteners – produced using either of
the above-cited processes -- are non-GMO.
Plus, they all are "GRAS." "GRAS" is a U.S. Food and Drug
Administration designation meaning "generally recognized as safe"
by experts. That means they can be used by food and beverage
companies as ingredients in the U.S.
PureCircle has been granted an array of stevia-related
patents. These patents – plus additional applied for patents
-- cover a wide range of stevia-related products and
processes. Beyond patents, and further enhancing its
broad-based intellectual property, the company has extensive trade
secrets and know-how.
PureCircle works with food and beverage companies to make
formulation with stevia simple and offers a number of specialized
variants and blends of stevia sweeteners designed to work optimally
in different consumer product categories.
PureCircle on the internet: www.purecircle.com
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SOURCE PureCircle