Arboreal Stevia

Stevia is a plant (herb) native to South America. Leaves of the Stevia plant are naturally sweet (up to 30 times sweetener than Sugar). The source of the sweetness in the leaves is a class of natural compounds called ‘Steviol Glycosides’. These glycosides are extracted from the leaf and the Stevia extracts are 200 to 300 times sweeter than cane sugar. Over 60 different glycosides have been identified to be naturally occurring in Stevia leaves and they all have their distinct sweetening properties and taste profiles.

Stevia is widely approved as a food ingredient and flavour in over 130+ countries. Leading food safety authorities including but not limited to US FDA, EU FSA and WHO’s JECFA (Joint Experts Committee on Food Additives) have evaluated Stevia extracts over decades and approved it as 100% safe for human consumption. Acceptable daily intake of steviol glycosides is defined to be 4 mg/kg of body weight (which is pretty self-regulating owing to the intensely sweet flavour profile of Stevia extracts). Apart from clinical testing and food safety approvals, Stevia has a long history of usage on the scale in countries like Japan, Korea and South America so much so that up to 40% of their overall sweetener market is Stevia based. Stevia has passed the test of time and has no known allergies or side effects.

There is no correlation between the purity of Stevia extracts and their taste performance in a particular recipe. Stevia extracts behave like a flavour more than a sweetener and have to be treated as such. Different Steviol Glycosides present in the Stevia extracts interact with each other and other ingredients in the recipe to deliver unique flavours and sensory profiles. For instance: Reb-A 60% which also contains Stevioside and Reb C components apart from Reb A itself in the majority outperforms Reb-A 99% in a Tomato Ketchup application. RA 60 grade is more widely available and is also cheaper apart from being the better tasting grade for tomato ketchup. The same isn’t true for other recipes.

Yes and No. On a kg basis, Stevia is expensive vs Sugar. But when it comes to Stevia’s cost in use in recipes and applications, it can lead to cost reduction vs Sugar. This is due to the high-intensity nature of Stevia extracts. Stevia extracts are roughly 200 times sweeter than Sugar so 1 Kg of Stevia extracts can substitute 200 Kg of Sugar in beverage recipes. Stevia is expensive vs Artificial sweeteners like Aspartame and Sucralose because the artificial sweeteners are cheap to synthesize and do not require cultivation or extraction. The sweetness factor of aspartame and sucralose is also higher compared to Stevia (1600X and 600X compared to Sugar, while Stevia is 200X) leading to the need for lower quantities vs Stevia or Sugar.