Stevia ingredients producer PureCircle is preparing to commercialize high purity Reb D to be used in food and beverage formulations that use natural, low to no calorie sweeteners.
The company is aiming to launch the product in the market as early as the second half of 2013.
Following a detailed safety evaluation by an independent expert panel, PureCircle said its high purity Reb D has received self-affirmed Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) status. PureCircle will formally submit its GRAS notification to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the agency’s additional safety review.
PureCircle says high purity Reb D has one of the best sweetness profiles of any steviol glycoside from the stevia leaf. The clean sweetness of PureCircle’s high purity Reb D, it says, will further enable customers to develop naturally sweetened formulations with very low to no calories, particularly in food and beverages with higher sweetness levels, such as carbonated soft drinks.
Its commercialization, it extends the company's Stevia 3.0 innovation platform alongside other next generation products such as PureCircle Alpha, SG95 and PureCircle flavor NSF-02.
PureCircle has now secured process, method and application patents for high purity Reb D and has begun collaborating with several customers on product development, with primary focus on initial introductions in the U.S.
