The Sweet Success of Stevia

A year after stevia was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a range of stevia-sweetened products are on their way to market. Overall sales are growing as a result: Market research firm Mintel expects stevia sales to jump from $21 million in 2008 to upward of $2 billion by the end of 2011.

To the casual observer, the sudden uptick in stevia sales may be confusing. Why all the interest in stevia? And what does the world need with another sweetener?

The world may not need just any old sweetener, but stevia offers something special that no other sweetener has so far: zero calories, no bad after-taste and a natural provenance. That particular combination is the “holy grail” for beverage makers and others, an editor of Beverage Digest told the Chicago Tribune.

So it should come as no surprise that stevia is gaining a broader audience, moving beyond health-food circles and into the general public — and enjoying sweet success.

“Right now what I see is that it’s replacing artificial sweeteners like Splenda,” says Andy Briscoe, president of The Sugar Association.

The natural sweetener’s flock of fans can thank an ingredient called rebaudioside A – or Reb A – for the good taste of recent stevia-based sweeteners, such as SweetLeaf and Truvia. Reb A is what gives these stevia-sweetener brands a better taste profile than the ground-up stevia powders one used to find in health-food stores. Processors extract Reb A from the leaves of the stevia plant, which has been used for centuries by the natives of Paraguay.

The FDA approval of stevia is perfectly timed to take advantage of a recent food-and-beverage trend toward simplicity and away from complicated ingredient lists. Consumer research group Innova Market Insights notes, “The downturn is making people nostalgic for simpler times and simpler foods. The interest in ‘back to basics’ has driven interest in natural and clean-label foods.”

At a San Francisco food show earlier this month, for example, one could see the impact of stevia: One of the busiest stands belonged to a new enhanced-water beverage, sweetened by – you guessed it – stevia. And as food-and-beverage producers tap into stevia’s possibilities, that’s just a taste of what’s to come.