Following our post on GM sugar beets, it was time we wrote about a new, promising, natural sweetener called rebiana (or Rebaudioside A, also known as Reb A). It is a high-intensity sweetener derived from the stevia leaf which grows in South East Asia (mostly Vietnam, Thailand, China…) and South America (Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Peru…). In December 2008, Reb A was generally recognized as safe (GRAS) as a food additive, whose safety was recently evidenced by a study published in the Food and Chemical Toxicology (April 2009).
Lately, the potential of stevia sweeteners as mainstream sugar replacers and diet-related product has been largely discussed:
- Stevia-derived Reb A is a high intensity sweetener, it is 200 times sweeter than sugar.
- It has a negligible glycemic index (little to no effect on blood glucose).
- This sweetener has zero-calorie.
- It can be used to replace up to 20% of sugar in a product.
- It is GMO-free…
While Reb A will find many useful applications in diabetic-related diets or low-calorie products, it is also considered a cost effective alternative to sugar, on par with the $0.77 per kilo cost of sugar. This will be possible provided the market develops and creates economies of scale as important supply chain investments are expected to encourage large scale penetration of the market by Reb A, according to major Reb A supplier PureCircle.
We look forward to sourcing new zero-calorie, all natural Reb A sweetened chocolates for you when they become available. We are committed to growing our offering of healthy chocolates.
