Hitting the sweet spot
The zero- calorie natural sweetener that is transforming the way the world consumes sugar.
really hit the roof.
Buoyed by United States Food and Drug Administration’s approval in 2008, followed by European Food Safety Authority approval in 2011, both of which allayed any doubts people might have had about it, stevia, as a result, has now amassed a global fan club of over four billion consumers.
But why on earth has a plant caused such a feverish chain reaction across the globe?
Well, like any true superhero, stevia’s looks are deceptive. It seems small and plain, but is actually magnificent and mighty. The zero- calorie yes, zero) all- natural sweetener wards off fearsome opponents like diabetes and obesity and packs a pretty mean punch. It is over 350 times sweeter than sugar! It is also tooth- friendly and has a low glycemic index that is safe for diabetics.
And let’s face it, this generation desperately needs a zero- calorie saviour. The World Health Organisation’s data from 2014 indicates that 39% of adults aged 18 and above are obese. As a result, views on stevia have dramatically shifted on people’s radars from “what is that?” to “knight in shining armour”.
And interestingly, it is a company with global headquarters in Malaysia that is leading the stevia charge.
Sweet as sugar
Pure Circle Sdn Bhd is a leading producer of high purity stevia products and has the world’s largest stevia plant, a massive two- hectare plot in Negri Sembilan’s Techpark @ Enstek Halal Park.
The original stevia plants are cultivated in China before being transported to the Malaysian refinery where a crystallisation process is used to separate and purify stevia sweeteners and flavours.
Business at Pure Circle is booming. There is a 30% growth in business over the past four years and the company is even building an extension to the existing building to keep up with demand.
Pure Circle primarily works with big name soft drink and beverage brands either to create new stevia- sugar blends or variants that mimic the taste of existing drinks.
In one particularly ambitious addition, the sugar content in a can of a branded soft drink has been cut down by a whopping 55% and tastes remarkably similar to its old school counterpart.
This is a fairly significant advance, especially as the World Health Organisation said in 2014 that sugar should only make up 5% of the total calories a person consumes in a day.
Considering a 300ml can of regular soft drink contains about seven teaspoons of sugar ( slightly more than the recommended daily intake for women), the stevia- sugar reduction is a significant leap ahead.
Not quite there yet
Despite all its attributes, there are some limitations to stevia, the most important being its taste.
Sugar addicts will tell you it doesn’t really taste like sugar and they’d be right on the money. At the Pure Circle headquarters, I realised this first- hand when I dropped a sachet of stevia into my tea, and discovered that it tasted ... strange. It wasn’t bad, just odd, with a slightly bitter aftertaste.
Pure Circle regional vice president Chong Kam Chun admits stevia’s taste can be difficult to swallow, and said, “One common drawback of stevia is the bitter or lingering aftertaste.”
To counteract this, the company is continuing to develop products that mine the best tasting steviol glycosides in the stevia leaf to help achieve taste breakthroughs.
But there are still other technical obstacles to overcome, like the fact that unlike sugar, stevia and baking aren’t natural bedfellows, and in fact have quite a complicated relationship.
While stevia can replace the sweetness of sugar, it cannot replicate its bulk function in baking, which means another bulk ingredient will still need to be added to make up for the lost body caused by the removal of sugar. In the same vein, you can’t expect to make caramel with stevia because it doesn’t react the same way as sugar.
Need for awareness
Despite its limitations, stevia’s popularity isn’t in any doubt ( four billion fans, hello?). The only thing is, Malaysians don’t seem to be as aware of it as the rest of the world. A Toluna survey conducted at the end of 2014 showed that awareness of stevia was only at 30% here. That is especially disconcerting, because
awareness of stevia is very low in Malaysia but Chong and Pure Circle are working to increase it in the next couple of years. — Filepic according to 2014 findings in British medical journal The Lancet, Malaysia is the fattest country in Asia, with almost half the population either overweight or obese.
“There is still a need for education and awareness,” said Chong, who added that the company’s goal was to bring awareness up to 50%.
Even if Malaysians don’t know much about stevia, this little plant’s potential and popularity is only going to increase, as people discover its health benefits in the face of an alarming obesity and diabetes epidemic.
“We believe that stevia is the next mass volume natural sweetener and estimate that its market potential is about 20% of the world sugar consumption,” said Chong.
If – having read this – you’re now itching to climb aboard the stevia train, you’re on the right track.
In Malaysia, stevia sweeteners are commercially available at most pharmacies. One stevia sachet is equivalent to one teaspoon of sugar, but as stevia is nearly 400 times sweeter than sugar, you’re unlikely to need more than a sprinkling to get your drink tasting just right. Now isn’t that sweet?