Ingredient Snapshot: While there are tremendous benefits to replacing sugar with high-intensity sweeteners (calorie-free sweetness is just one example), working with these ingredients can be tricky.

The flavor impact of stevia and monk fruit for instance, is powerful. To combat unpleasant off notes, product developers typically pair these sweeteners with compatible flavors to mask any hint of unpleasantness, such as stevia with cola or monk fruit with berry or citrus.

In an effort to produce exceptionally clean-flavored, competitively priced natural sweeteners, Steviva Ingredients has implemented a new, double-purification technology that makes great advances in mitigating the aftertaste of high-intensity sweeteners – thereby removing the need for flavor masking.

Dubbed PuRefine, the purification process is a two-stage resin column technology that uses resins from polymers that are capable of attaching to unwanted compounds in a monk fruit solution that is passed through them. This results in the removal of all aftertaste and off notes that in the past may have been reminiscent of melon rind.

In line with Steviva’s commitment to the natural sweetener category, the resin column employed in the process come from naturally occurring polymers.

“While resins column technology has been used for decades, such as in the manufacturing of fruit juices to remove bitter-tasting components, this process is the first of its kind, poised to revolutionize the natural sweetener market,” said Thom King, president and CEO of Steviva Ingredients. “PuRefine represents a sea change to the natural sweetener category; these new, exceptionally clean-flavored sweeteners open the door to a new wave of clean-label, reduced-sugar foods.”

In addition to setting the bar for quality and superior taste, PuRefine can also be used to decolorize monk fruit and stevia, thereby replacing bleaching processes.

Steviva has launched the PuRefine process with its PuRefine Ultra-Purified MonkSweet Monk Fruit Extract line which includes MonkSweet V50, MonkSweet V40, MonkSweet V25, MonkSweet LS (stevia/monk fruit blend) and MonkSweet+ (stevia, monk fruit and erythritol blend). The company is also working to implement the technology with its SteviaSweet 95-60 and SteviaSweet RA98 stevia extracts, which are expected to be introduced to the ingredient marketplace in early fourth quarter of 2017.

A white paper, “New Developments in Natural Sweetening,” addresses ultra-pure, clean-tasting sweeteners and the impact on food and beverage development; it is available free of charge by calling 310-455-9876. For more information and samples, please contact sales@steviva.com, call 310-455-9876 or visit www.stevivaingredients.com.