Enough to Sweeten 500 Million Cases of Carbonated Soft Drinks
or the Equivalent
Cost Comparable to Sugar
CHICAGO, July 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/
-- PureCircle (LSE: PURE), the world's leading
producer and innovator of stevia sweeteners, announces that its
recent advances in expanding capacity now enable it to supply
significantly more Reb M to global beverage and food companies.
Using beverage sweetening as an equivalized example,
PureCircle can now supply enough Reb M to sweeten about 500 million
cases of zero-calorie carbonated soft drinks. PureCircle
continues to build production capacity, and it estimates that three
years from now, it could supply enough Reb M to sweeten 1
billion cases of zero-calorie carbonated soft drinks or the
equivalent in beverages and foods using Reb M as the sweetener.
PureCircle further estimates that, depending on amounts
purchased and terms of purchase, companies buying Reb M from
PureCircle will find the cost of using it to sweeten a beverage or
food, equivalent to their cost of using sugar to achieve the same
level of sweetening.
Reb M is the variant of stevia sweetener which has the most
sugar-like taste and which is most sought after by beverage and
food companies.
Until now, a challenge has been that Reb M is present only in
relatively small amounts in conventional stevia plants.
PureCircle has developed a proprietary strain of the stevia plant
that it calls Starleaf ™ stevia. It contains greater amounts Reb M
than conventional stevia plants. PureCircle is massively ramping up
its planting of Starleaf.
PureCircle produces Reb M both directly from the Starleaf stevia
plant and from other stevia sweeteners in the plant. In the
latter case, PureCircle starts with purified stevia leaf
extract with low Reb M content and by adding an enzyme,
the maturation to Reb M is completed, just as the leaf does
naturally. Enzymes play a similar role in various products
including baby food, cheese, other dairy products and
chocolate.
The Reb M produced from the two processes are both from the
stevia leaf and are identical in great taste.
All of PureCircle's stevia sweeteners – produced using either of
the above-cited processes -- are non-GMO.
In addition, they all are "GRAS." "GRAS" is a U.S. Food
and Drug Administration designation meaning "generally recognized
as safe" by experts.
Beverage and food companies are already using PureCircle's Reb M
in their products. PureCircle's expansion in production of
Reb M will help companies obtain supplies of an ingredient they
need, as they respond to their consumers' desires for more zero-
and low-calorie products using plant-based sweeteners.
Our website: www.purecircle.com
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SOURCE PureCircle