Cargill told ConfectioneryNews at IFT in Las Vegas recently that EverSweet was created through fermentation, and it can be used in a variety of confectionery applications for the purpose of sugar reduction, including chocolate, chewing gum, as well as hard candy and mints.
“What we noticed is that, to derive Reb M and D from the [stevia] leaf, it’s actually going to have a large impact on cost,” said global commercial manager of Cargill’s stevia unit, Alyssa Leyva.
She mentioned that fermentation is a more cost effective way for manufacturers using stevia as a sweetener.
Cargill’s current sweetener portfolio includes the standard Truvia products with 95%, 80%, and 50% Reb A respectively, and ViaTech, a stevia leaf-based product.
“We tasted and studied them independently as well as in combinations, and we developed a model to predict tastes,” she said.
Leyva said Cargill will continue to invest in its growing stevia-based sweetener portfolio in 2017.