Formulation issues


Soft drinks come with specific formulation issues, however. Beverages generally contain less fat, protein and other ingredients than food products, which means their overall flavor and taste come directly to the tongue and nose, said Hideki Fujihara, manager of the beverage application group, R.&D., for Matsutani Chemical Industry Co. Ltd., based in Itami, Japan. A bad after-taste also may come from some high-intensity sweeteners, he added.

“Formulators combine different types of high-intensity sweeteners to make sugar-like sweetness,” Mr. Fujihara said. “They add sugar alcohols and soluble dietary fibers to better mouthfeel. There is no perfect fit in those combinations.”

Stevia in a bowl
A fermentation process may make stevia-based sweeteners more commercially viable.

PureCircle, which has a U.S. office in Oak Brook, Ill., introduced its Segma-Beverage line of stevia applications last November. The sweeteners are tailored with a proprietary combination of steviol glycosides designed to address the unique needs of beverages. Since Sigma-Beverage performs similarly to sugar at deep calorie reductions, formulators may create beverage solutions in an efficient manner, reducing development time by as much as 30% to 50%, according to the company.

“Beverages have provided a challenge for formulators because of the high sweetness max,” said John Martin, senior global director of technical innovations for PureCircle. “To achieve that level of sweetness with stevia can sometimes result in linger or a strong, sweet aftertaste. However, the steviol glycosides in Sigma-Beverage were optimized to provide a very clean, sugar-like taste with reduced linger. It works well for the challenges of beverage applications.”

Each beverage company’s formulation process is different, as are the elements that comprise each product, he said.

“Solutions are different between a cola, a lemon-lime and an orange, for example,” Mr. Martin said. “We would work closely with each company individually to determine how Sigma-Beverage can best address their needs while still maintaining superior taste.”

Cargill will feature a ginger beer, a mid-calorie beverage that contains its ViaTech stevia sweetener, at Natural Products Expo West March 9-11 in Anaheim, Calif.

“With ViaTech, food and beverage manufacturers achieve optimal sweetness and significant sugar reduction in even the most challenging reduced- and zero-calorie formulations,” said Pam Stauffer, global marketing programs manager for Minneapolis-based Cargill. “Part of what sets the ViaTech portfolio apart from other stevia-based sweeteners is Cargill’s proprietary taste-prediction model, which can precisely predict which combinations of steviol glycosides deliver optimal taste and sweetness.”

Jungbunzlauer, Basel, Switzerland, offers Erylite Stevia, a sweetening system based on the bulk sweetener Erylite (erythritol) and the stevia extract Rebaudioside A. Erylite Stevia 100 has the same sweetness as sucrose while Erylite Stevia 200 is twice as sweet as sucrose and Erylite Stevia 400 is four times as sweet as sucrose.

Ingredion, Inc., Westchester, Ill., has Enliten stevia-based sweeteners in its ingredient portfolio.

“Enliten stevia sweeteners offer a range from low purity to high purity Reb A to fit the unique intricacies of various food and beverage categories (e.g., process stability, solubility) all the while offering the optimal sweet profile,” said Afrouz Naeini, senior marketing manager, sweetness, for Ingredion.

Now, Ingredion is becoming involved in another sweetener, one that involves fermentation techniques designed to bring down the costs of sweeteners with steviol glycosides. Ingredion will become the exclusive distributor of no-calorie sweeteners from SweeGen, Inc. in all markets except China. Ingredion will be a non-exclusive distributor in China. Ingredion, when the deal was announced Dec. 1, 2016, said it will begin distributing SweeGen in February.

“SweeGen’s zero-calorie sweeteners, made using pure stevia leaf extract and a novel, proprietary process, have an unparalleled clean sweet taste without the bitter aftertaste,” Ms. Naeini said.

SweeGen, Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., offers stevia-based sweeteners produced by fermentation to bring about a commercially feasible pricing structure.

Cargill also has explored fermentation and steviol glycosides. The company, through a partnership with Evolva, originally planned to introduce EverSweet, a sweetener created through a fermentation process involving baker’s yeast, in 2016. Now the sweetener may launch in 2018, but the plan is subject to Cargill and Evolva completing negotiations this spring, Evolva said on Jan. 10 of this year.

EverSweet would be produced initially at Cargill’s manufacturing campus in Blair, Neb., through retrofitting existing Cargill facilities.

EverSweet is made with the same sweetness found in the stevia leaf, the steviol glycosides Rebaudioside M and Rebaudioside D. Because the stevia plant produces only trace amounts of these molecules, using Reb M and Reb D to produce a sweetener previously had not been commercially or environmentally viable, Cargill said when announcing the deal with Evolva in 2015.