About Stevia
What is stevia?
It's always a truism that the best things in nature have been used by somebody around the world for centuries, even millennia; they just needed re-discovering by the wider world. This couldn't be more true of stevia. Stevia is a small shrub that is a member of Asteraceae family of plants, more commonly referred to as the "sunflower family." The scientific name for stevia is stevia rebaudiana.
The native peoples of Paraguay have known about the stevia plant for centuries and have employed it to sweeten their beverages for many generations. They have valued its incredible sweetness for a long time. The rest of the world only really "discovered" stevia at the end of the 19th century, through the efforts of the Swiss Dr. Moises Santiago Bertoni, from the University of Ascuncion, who in 1899 received a sample of stevia leaf from a colleague. He named it Stevia Rebaudiana, after the Paraguayan chemist Rebaudi, who later became the first person to isolate the naturally sweet compounds contained therein.
What is Reb-A (Stevia Extract)?
Reb-A (Stevia Extract) as an all-natural sweetening ingredient, refers to relatively high purity rebaudioside A naturally extracted from the stevia leaf that is used in powder or liquid form to heighten sweetening intensity and improve taste.
The stevia leaf contains a number of very similar compounds or steviol glycosides that are all sweet. The best tasting of these is rebaudioside A. In its highly purified form, it has sweetness between 250 to 350 times that of an equal weight of sugar.
If rebaudioside A only had the same sweetness as sugar it would have much more calorific content than sugar. However, nature has produced a molecule that is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar and therefore the very small amount needed to sweeten a food product means that the rebaudioside A contributes zero calories.
Zevia’s sweetening partner; Sweet Green Fields (SGF) uses its patented technology to purify rebaudioside A. This involves using only naturally derived materials that are already generally recognized as safe (GRAS) by the FDA. The result is a product that is greater than 97% pure rebaudioside A. The remaining 3% or less is made up of other glycosides, such as stevioside, and rebaudioside C and trace minerals. The result of a gentle, safe extraction process is a cleaner sweet tasting product that reflects the fact that we leave less contaminating material in the finished product than was in it when we started!
What does the rest of the World think of Reb-A (stevia extract)?
In the rest of the world, regulatory approval for this amazing all natural high intensity sweetener is just around the corner. In September of 2008 the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/World Health Organization (WHO) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA) reviewed the large amount of scientific studies on high purity Reb-A (stevia extract) and published a favorable conclusion concerning its safety and have continued to generate very favorable reports.
Early in 2011, the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) also approved it and now the petition to have it included as an ingredient for use throughout Europe is with the European Parliament, where it is expected to be approved for general consumption. France has already approved it separately, and retail products containing it are readily available. Further evidence that the world is ready for this sweetener was recently made even more evident with the publication of the proceedings of the joint FAO/WHO food standards program, Codex Alimentarius Commission from Geneva, Switzerland, 4-9 July 2011. It gave guidance on usage levels in common foodstuffs. The rest of the world generally follows the Codex guidelines and so the door is now open for Reb-A (stevia extract) to become a natural sweetener ingredient option for the benefit of all humankind!
Is Stevia Safe?
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) notice for Reb-A sweetener use in food products in December 2008. Extensive studies have shown that Reb-A (Stevia Extract) does not affect blood glucose or insulin levels. Studies have shown that high purity stevia extracts are safe for diabetics.
Reb-A has also been shown to be non-mutagenic and at normal levels of use does not affect the GI tract, giving a very satisfying and natural sweetening alternative to sugar.
The carefully selected partner for Zevia’s sweetener of choice, SGF, has gone to great lengths to independently validate the composition of its products to ensure that they meet its stringent specifications. This has been achieved in two ways: first, as SGF is a founding member of the International Stevia Council, it has played a leading role in the industry in developing independent validation of analytical methods for QA of commercial stevia extracts. SGF’s own labs are now independently validated through this process and have shown accuracy in in-house analytical procedures.
Second, SGF ships product to highly respected third party laboratories for glycoside, pesticide, metals and moisture content. Only if outside validation results show that the specification is being met, does SGF institute its positive release policy for that lot and issue a certificate of analysis. As newer state of the art methods of analysis are developed and as customer concerns about specific compositional items become apparent, SGF is at the forefront of developing thorough, rugged testing methods to answer any customer concerns about its products.
It is fine to talk of supplier validation of its own products and ingredients, but what does the highest food safety authority in the land think? The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Zevia’s sweetener!
In December of 2008, the FDA issued letters of "no objection" to two large food and beverage companies who had lobbied the FDA for approval of high purity rebaudioside A as "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS). A letter of "no objection" is a letter sent to the applicant that states that all of the extensive clinical data generated on the effects of high purity rebaudioside A shows no potential for harm to humans at the suggested dose.
What GRAS status means is that high purity rebaudioside A at an accepted average daily intake of 0 – 12 mg/Kg body weight/day has been studied extensively and the FDA has found the studies to be acceptable and convincing to established scientists in proving no significant harm. The FDA has issued letters of no objection to manufacturers of stevia extracts with a rebaudioside A content of no less than 95% rebaudioside A by weight.
Given the well documented safety of stevia extracts, the FDA has widened the safety net a little and has allowed use of stevia extracts containing not less than 95% total steviol glycosides. This means that high purity steviol glycoside extracts now join the ranks of other foodstuffs that are considered ingredients. Previous to this ruling all stevia extracts were considered by the FDA to be dietary supplements, and as such were not regulated for safety and could therefore not be included as ingredients in foods manufactured for mass consumption. Zevia has chosen a sweetener partner with the highest credentials including GRAS approved status directly from the FDA for the sweetener in its products.
Zevia has chosen a sweetener partner with the highest credentials and so already has GRAS approved status directly from the FDA for the sweetener in its products.
Links:
www.sweetgreenfields.com
www.internationalsteviacouncil.org
