Ingredion has launched a five-part video series to help food and beverage manufacturers harness stevia in order to reduce the sugar content of their products.
The series explores how stevia provides a natural alternative to artificial sweeteners, meeting consumer demands for healthy foods and enabling claims such as “plant-based” on product packaging. It also explains how the discovery of new steviol glycosides allows for a more balanced, sugar-like sweetness without bitter off-notes.
Additionally, the videos describe how ingredients such as polyols and soluble corn fibre — both offered by Ingredion — can replace the bulking and texture properties of sugar. The increasing affordability of premium stevia molecules, driven by new innovations, is also discussed.
Ingredion’s stevia and sweetener brand, PureCircle, offers solutions for numerous applications using varying combinations of steviol glycosides. PureCircle’s new types of glycosides, produced via bioconversion, were authorised by the EU Commission in November and are now available to European manufacturers.
Meeting consumer expectations
Ingredion is involved in the production of numerous plant-based and alt protein ingredients, collaborating with InnovoPro to distribute chickpea protein in North America and developing cultivated fish alongside Umami Meats.
Last year, Ingredion invested an undisclosed sum into synbio firm Solar Biotech, which uses techniques such as precision fermentation to transform the way consumer products are manufactured.
“The challenge for manufacturers is to not only develop products that help support a healthy lifestyle; products must also be great-tasting and deliver an ideal texture and nutritional appeal, and may support consumer-preferred label claims such as ‘plant-based’, ‘natural origin’ and ‘no added sugar’. Innovation in stevia is creating opportunities for manufacturers to develop products that achieve these sensory, nutritional and claim expectations,” said Helen Hook, Sugar Reduction and Specialty Sweeteners Platform Lead EMEA at Ingredion.
