Stevia sweetener finding its way into more and more products
Earlier this year, Mintel’s Global New Products Database tracked over 279 stevia-based products that were launched across Europe. The world’s largest supplier of stevia, PureCircle, is quite happy with this given the fact that the item is really taking off.
Vice President of global marketing and innovation at PureCircle, Jason Hecker, stated that there has been a very strong call for stevia in Europe with most of the launches concerning drinks. He expanded on the drinks mentioning that stevia is placed in teas, juices, flavoured waters, and soda. In addition, Hecker stated that they are broadening their launches to also include categories of yogurts, jellies, chocolate milks, ketchups, and sauces.
Univer, which is responsible for distributing stevia products throughout Europe, stated that they thought food manufacturers would have picked up the sweetener in a much quicker fashion. One of the reasons for this may be the fact that stevia demand has been over-hyped and there are too many suppliers attempting to get in on the profits.
A spokeswoman for Ajinomoto the aspartame supplier pointed out that table-top sweeteners are the main focus for stevia companies in Europe. She went on to say that they were surprised by how many table-top products quickly popped up after the introduction and approval of stevia as everyone that made table-top products wanted to release their own version. At first most retailers were willing to sport the expert products, but now the selection is narrowing with prices dropping and Truvia appears to be the leader in the stevia market.
As a distributor only Univar works with SMEs and multinationals, however, they are still hoping that big brand owners will pick up stevia and then everyone else will quickly follow suit. This has not happened yet.
