Real Stevia

Sometimes we get questions about stevia leaf extract being natural or not, which we believe it is to 100 %. Recently, a new study concluded that steviol glycosides from the stevia plant are not altered during the extraction and purification process to make high-purity stevia extract. Which supports stevia extract as a natural ingredient.

“These findings are significant because the natural authenticity of stevia sweetener has been questioned due to the purification process it undergoes. The fact that there is no change of the nine steviol glycosides in the provided samples from the original plant to extracted sweetener provides support for the natural authenticity of stevia sweeteners,” said Dr. Ursula Wölwer-Rieck, Department of Nutritional and Food Sciences at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Stevia is extracted and purified from the stevia plant into a powdered sweetener form. The extraction process involves steeping the dried leaves of the plant, like a tea, and then separating and purifying the best tasting sweet compounds, the steviol glycosides.

High-purity stevia leaf extract is approved in more than 150 countries, and over 200 studies support stevia’s science and safety. Since 2008, more than 10,000 products have launched globally with stevia. In 2016 alone, close to 3,000 products launched globally with stevia, with the beverage category growing by 20 percent and the food category growing by 9 percent.

We are back in the Stockholm office after a couple of intense and inspiring days at the giant Food Ingredient Europe (FIE) fair, hosted in Frankfurt. Thousands of ingredient companies presented their products in three huge hangars where it was easy to get lost. The Real Stevia Company shared a booth with our hospitable distributor Kreglinger and some of their other suppliers.

Next week our team goes to Food Ingredients Europe (FiE), one of the largest food fairs in Europe. We present Real Stevia sweetened products in collaboration with our distributor Kreglinger in Stand 08.0P.66. 

Lots of interesting things are happening with stevia and the world of sweeteners and it can be hard to keep track of it all. In our news roundup blog, we try and summarize the latest news!

New sugar tax in France has sugar producers upset.

What if I told you there is a sweetener that is healthy for you, and that you can eat with a good conscience. Well, did you know there is a leaf, carefully farmed in the green fields of Paraguay, called Stevia. The health benefits of Stevia are quite impressive; no calories, 100% natural and it even suites diabetics, as stevia has no effect on your blood sugar. But it doesn’t stop there. Stevia is also 300 times sweeter than sugar, so you need to use less, which means saving land and water resources. It goes without saying that this benefits the environment.

We know that most of you don’t have time to scan the news every day, so we put together a short list of the most interesting sweet news for you!

It was finally time for us, Anna and Carl-Fredrik, to visit Paraguay for the first time. After a 24 hour long trip we arrived in Paraguay, where our stevia plantations and second office are located. Our first impression, besides the very moist heat, was that it wasn’t that different to Sweden, where our trip had started. Even though our countries obviously have major social and geographical differences, the people, values and ambitions are very similar. Everyone we met was very open and friendly and we communicated in a lively mix of Spanish, Portuguese, and English. Our Paraguayan multilingual colleagues helped us with translation into the native Guarani language when meeting with the farmers.

Sustainability Report 2016 – A sweet business

Sugar has increasingly become a health threat that can no longer be overlooked, causing alarming problems with diabetes, obesity and other endemic diseases. Many countries are adopting a sugar tax approach to cope with over consumption of sugar, and producers are looking to reduce the amount of sugar in our daily foods and drinks.

As you may have heard in the news, or in the blogosphere, there’s a lot of buzz around a sugar tax or sugar levy being passed into law all around the world. Let’s try and dispel some myths and give some background into why this is becoming a world-wide trend.

Tax on added sugars in soft drinks could affect a wide range of products