Agriculture & Food

Recently, in order to further regulate the steviol glycoside sweetener market, the European Commission issued a new labeling guideline, which revised (EC) No 1333/2008 and (EU) No 231/2012 to replace the original steviol glycoside (E 960) The label is further improved. So, what exactly has the EU changed?

The historical changes of EU steviol glycoside regulations

In 2011, the European Union officially listed stevioside (E 960) as a food additive, allowing it to be used as a sweetener. Later, the European Union revised the definition of steviol glycosides. In 2018, it stipulated that steviol glycosides (E 960) include stevioside, rebaudioside A, rebaudioside B, rebaudioside C, rebaudioside D, and rebaudioside D. There are 11 kinds of abaudioside E, rebaudioside F, rebaudioside M, duketoside A, sweet tea glycosides and steviol diglycoside. The manufacturing process includes two main stages. The first stage involves taking from stevia leaves The preliminary purification by water extraction is carried out, and the second stage involves the recrystallization and purification of steviol glycosides.

Source: "National Food Safety Standard Food Additive Steviol Glycoside" (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)

With the deepening of the research on steviol glycosides, it was found that rebaudioside M is the sweetest among all steviol glycosides. At the same time, it has almost no bitterness and aftertaste of steviol glycosides and rebaudioside A, which is the closest to the taste of sucrose. . Increasing the yield of rebaudioside M is undoubtedly the best way to solve the bad taste of steviol glycosides, but the content of this sweet glycoside in stevia leaves is only 1%, and special methods are needed to mass produce. The commonly used method is to transform the purified stevia extract through a multi-step enzymatic process, using uridine diphosphate glucosyltransferase and sucrose synthase to transfer glucose to steviol glycosides through glycosidic bonds, and the resulting rebaudioside Glycoside M undergoes a series of purification and separation steps to finally produce rebaudioside M with a purity higher than 95%, and its sweetness is 200 times that of sucrose.

 Source: Development of Next Generation Stevia Sweetener: Rebaudioside M

On October 28, 2019, the EU Food Additives and Flavoring Agents Group provided a scientific opinion on the safety of the proposed amendment to the food additive steviol glycoside (E 960) (especially rebaudioside M) specification, stipulating rebaudioside M is produced by enzymatic biotransformation of purified stevia extract. After evaluation, the expert group believes that rebaudioside M is used as a food additive without safety issues, and has the same scope and level of use as steviol glycosides (E 960).

In order to further distinguish between steviol glycosides of complete plant origin and rebaudioside M produced by enzymatic methods, on July 26 this year, the European Commission issued a new labeling guideline for (EC) No 1333/2008 and (EU) ) No. 231/2012 was modified to divide the original steviol glycosides (E 960) into two parts, including steviol glycosides from stevia (E 960a) and steviol glycosides (E 960c) from enzymatic production. At the same time, in order to enable operators to better adapt to the new regulations, the European Union has set up a transition period of up to 18 months, during which it can continue to sell foods with steviol glycoside (E 960) ingredient labels until the inventory is emptied.

This label change will provide consumers with greater clarity and transparency, help consumers better identify the source of steviol glycosides used in food, and deepen their understanding of natural plant-derived stevia.

It is worth mentioning that the new version of "National Food Safety Standard Food Additive Steviol Glycosides" also revised the definition of steviol glycosides, and added rebaudioside E and rebaudioside E and Rebaudioside on the basis of GB 8270-2014. There are four glycosides including Glucoside N, Rebaudioside O, and Rebaudioside M. The molecular formulas, structural formulas and relative molecular masses of 13 glycosides have been added. This will also promote the application of high sweetness glycosides such as rebaudioside M in the domestic market to a certain extent.

Constantly innovating stevia products

With the continuous development of enzyme technology and bioengineering technology, scientists have begun to increase the content of rebaudioside M in steviol glycosides through various means. The sugar substitute ratio can be increased from the original 30% to 70%, and the taste is infinitely close to sucrose. Enzyme modification method, fermentation method, and breeding method are three common production methods.

The breeding method is to breed high-yield rebaudioside M and stevia plant varieties. This stevia contains more rebaudioside M than conventional stevia plants. Through large-scale planting of this stevia, the rebaudioside can be improved. The yield of glycoside M stevioside is 20% higher than that of conventional stevia. The representative product is Starleaf from PSEC.

Enzymatic modification method is to modify the rebaudioside A and stevioside, which are more abundant in stevia, through enzymatic transformation to convert into rebaudioside M, which is the most commonly used method.

The rebaudioside M finally produced by the above two methods are all natural plant-derived products, while the third method is to use genetically engineered yeast to directly convert sugar into rebaudioside M through fermentation or biotransformation. Glycoside M. The rebaudioside M produced by this method is no longer of plant origin, but the products produced are still non-GMO products and will not be labeled with GMO. They are also steviol glycosides, but they need to be marked in a special way. Production of steviol glycosides. This is currently the most popular one in the research and development of steviol glycoside products, but there is still a long way to go in terms of regulations. Among the main products currently on the market that have passed GRAS certification, DSM’s fermented steviol glycoside Avansya Rebaudioside M is produced by Yarrowia lipolytica strains fermenting the sweet molecule Rebaudioside A; Cargill’s EverSweet uses genetically engineered baker's yeast Corn glucose is fermented into rebaudioside D and rebaudioside M, and then the yeast is completely removed from the final product, and further concentrated and purified.

The growing stevia market

Consumers' demand for low-sugar, low-calorie foods and beverages continues to grow, and stevia has become one of the fastest growing natural sweeteners in the world. According to Mintel data, globally, the compound annual growth rate of products containing stevioside on the market from 2015 to 2019 is 15%. Innova data also shows that among new global food and beverage products in 2019, the amount of stevia used as a sweetener is second only to sucralose and acesulfame K.

In the Asia-Pacific region, stevia is growing rapidly. Since 2012, the sales volume of stevioside products in the Asia-Pacific region has increased by 40%. It is estimated that from 2016 to 2024, the compound annual growth rate of the stevioside application market in the Asia-Pacific region will reach 5.7%, becoming the world's stevia application consumption. The largest market, followed by Europe (4.3%) and North America (4.5%). In 2020, the stevia application market in the Asia-Pacific region is expected to reach 208.3 billion US dollars.

Stevia will not cause an increase in blood glucose concentration after ingestion in the human body, nor will it promote an increase in blood insulin concentration. Compared with sugar alcohol substitutes, it is better tolerated and healthier. However, a large number of stevia with rebaudioside A as the main ingredient on the market has the disadvantage of poor taste, making it less popular in China than the popular erythritol. The new generation of stevioside with rebaudioside M as the core will undoubtedly become the mainstream of the future industry, which also puts forward higher requirements for domestic stevioside manufacturers in product innovation and sales.