Company: SweeGen

Websites: www.sweegen.com

Ingredient Snapshot: Ready for use in creative food and beverage innovations, SweeGen’s Bestevia Rebaudioside B has received the GRAS (Generally Recognized As Safe) Letter of No Objection from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Health, wellness and lifestyle modifications are on the mind of most consumers as pandemic conditions have them moving away from artificial sweeteners and sugar. More consumers are embracing nature-based stevia sweeteners and clean-label ingredients in their food and beverages. The drink market is responding as a surge of new global drink launches containing stevia are on the rise, with North America leading, as reported by Mintel in a sugar reduction analysis.

“With a design-thinking approach for using consumer-preferred ingredients, coupled with Reb B’s characteristics and flexibility, such as good solubility and zero calories, we are very excited about collaborating with brands on functional beverages with unique flavors and nutritional ingredients,” said Casey McCormick, director of product development.

As brands are under pressure to reduce sugar, yet charged with creating great tasting products, the GRAS status qualifies Reb B as one more high-purity nature-based sweetener with a unique sensory profile to join SweeGen’s expansive stevia portfolio, including the highly sought-after Rebs D, E, I and M.

“This GRAS status is a great milestone for food and beverage manufacturers because Bestevia Reb B expands the toolkit for tackling the hurdles of reducing sugar in products, especially in beverages,” said Hadi Omrani, director of technical & regulatory affairs.

Bestevia Reb B is a next generation stevia sweetener because it is only found in trace amounts in the stevia leaf, much like its sweet-tasting counterparts in Sweegen’s non-GMO stevia nature-based sweetener portfolio. Since the best tasting sweetener molecules are found in such small quantities in the leaves, SweeGen uses its proprietary bioconversion technology to produce a range of  sustainable stevia sweeteners with assured quality, regulatory compliance and competitive prices.

Last year, SweeGen announced Bestevia Reb B was ready for commercial production.

SweeGen continues to focus on application technology, taste modulation expertise and regional consumer trends in order to meet the high demand for unique sugar reduction solutions in the nature-based sweetener space.

Bestevia is a registered trademark of SweeGen Inc.