EU approves use of Stevia in food and beverages
Evolva Holding SA announced that the European Commission has approved the use of steviol glycosides in food and beverages in the European Union. After the earlier clearance by regulators in the US and many other regions of the world, this marks a major breakthrough in the acceptance of Stevia as a natural, zero-calorie sweetener.
Evolva is rapidly advancing the development of highly purified forms of the natural high intensity sweetener Stevia, produced via fermentation in yeast. Evolva's research team has already successfully made the important individual steviol glycoside components of Stevia via fermentation in yeast. Evolva believes the ability to produce such molecules individually has significant market potential by allowing cost effective production of the best tasting steviol glycosides, including those found at very low levels in the Sevia leaf. This will allow our customers the ability to better customise taste profiles. Over the next year, the focus will be on optimising the production host and associated manufacturing conditions.
Neil Goldsmith, CEO and Managing Director of Evolva, commented: “This is important news for Evolva. It confirms and expands the potential of our Stevia-pipeline. We are working hard to develop Stevia compounds, equivalent to the plant-derived product, but made via fermentation in yeast. This approach confers major additional benefits in the form of a more reliable and scalable supply-chain, a better and more customisable taste profile and more attractive pricing. Combined these benefits will allow many more people around the world to enjoy the benefits that are inherent to Stevia.”
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