Company Significantly Boosting Supply
Capacity Of Its Proprietary StarLeaf™ Stevia
Plant That Yields High Amounts of Best-Tasting Stevia
Sweeteners
CHICAGO, Feb. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- PureCircle
(LSE: PURE), the world's leading producer and innovator of
great-tasting stevia sweeteners for the global beverage and food
industries, announces that it will vastly increase the amount of
StarLeaf™ stevia it plants in 2018. It plans to plant nearly 16,000
tons in 2018, an increase of about 200% over the prior year.
As with any agricultural crop, these plans are subject to various
conditions such as weather.
PureCircle's StarLeaf™ is a proprietary non-GMO stevia plant
that yields roughly 20 times more of the newest and best-tasting
stevia leaf sweeteners than conventional stevia varieties. These
stevia sweeteners make it far easier for food and beverage
companies to deliver great-tasting, sugar-reduced and sugar-free
products across a wide range of food and beverage
categories.
With the planned increases in planting, the company estimates
that 80% of the stevia plants it uses this year will be StarLeaf™
-- likely increasing to 90% next year. Expanding the planting
and use of its proprietary StarLeaf™ stevia leaf will enable the
company to meet the increasing demand of food and beverage
industries for the best-tasting – and most sugar-like –
zero-calorie, stevia sweeteners.
PureCircle utilizes a wide and expanding global agricultural
network for its stevia supply, sourcing it from an increasing
number of countries around the world. Part of the dramatic
increase in StarLeaf™ planting this year is the result of our new
farming partnerships in North Carolina. Some farmers there –
working with PureCircle -- are starting to use land that once grew
tobacco, to grow StarLeaf™ plants. Planting stevia enables
them to grow and sell a highly-sought after crop, the demand for
which is growing, and to productively use their farming
acreage.
The food and beverage industry has seen a steady increase in
product launches featuring stevia as an ingredient, as evidenced by
the 10% increase in 2017 as compared to 2016 according to Mintel.
Since 2008, it has been utilized in more than 16,000 products
globally.
PureCircle's research, development and innovation has enabled it
to offer a range of stevia-based sweetener ingredients with
sugar-like taste and zero calories. These from-nature
sweeteners -- often used in combinations with each other -- work
well in a wide variety of beverages and foods, and that is
advantageous for beverage and food companies. They have an
increasing need for just such an ingredient, because consumers,
health experts and governments have become increasingly concerned
about obesity and diabetes, and have also become increasingly
health and wellness conscious.
PureCircle has developed solutions for food and beverage
producers both to enhance their use of stevia for best taste and
also to simplify their work with stevia. PureCircle's
production capability enables us to quickly meet global customer
demands.