Steviva receives Safe Quality Food certification

25-Sep-2016 - Last updated on 26-Sep-2016 at 12:38 GMT

Steviva's new headquarter facility in Portland is four times bigger than its previous site

Stevia supplier Steviva has received Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification at its new headquarters based in Portland.

The natural sweetener manufacturer recently spoke with ConfectioneryNews at IFT in Chicago about its latest sugar replacer, Erysweet + Ultra stevia and erythritol blend. The company claims the blend can solve sugar-free chocolate’s tempering issues and reduce sugar by 99%.

Steviva’s CEO Thom King told this site that the blend has been used by national chocolate brands, as well as smaller-scale companies, including Dream Chocolate, to help reduce sugar content in their products.

King previously said the natural sweetener market is around $3.5bn, and is expected to grow at least 18% for 2016.

Ensuring safety of confectionery ingredients

SQF is a food safety management system that focuses on the verification and validation of food safety and quality systems across the food supply chain, according to Steviva. The system is administered by the Food Marketing Institute.

Receiving SQF certification, King added, means that confectionery companies, who work with Steviva, now feel more confident using the company’s ingredients.

Quality and document control specialist at Steviva, Yishu Hou, said in a statement: “Ensuring the highest possible standards for quality control and food safety drives everything we do… This certification reinforces that commitment to our customers as a reliable quality supply-chain partner.”

Expanding its employee-centric facility

Steviva’s new 26,500-square-foot building headquarters, which is four times bigger than its previous one, started its production in late April this year, King said. And SQF had been auditing the facility until mid-July.

The company has installed amenities including a yoga studio, archery range, rock-climbing wall, for its employees in the new facility.

Currently, Steviva is in the process of procuring equipment to enable packing and co-packing in single-serve liquid sachets and powder packets, as well as a bottle-filling line and bag fillers for co-packing.

The company is also building regional distribution centers in the Midwest and on East Coast of the US.