Cargill: Natural Sweetening

Cargill EverSweet solutions—steviol glycoside products made through fermentation—give food and beverage manufacturers an even more scalable, sustainable and low cost-in-use solution

Cargill_MexChoc_900 — This Mexican chocolate mocha cold brew is a no-sugar-added cold-brew coffee concept created by Cargill. To create this dairy-alternative drink, we started with a coffee and almond-milk base, then used EverSweet to dial in the optimum sweetness level for a balanced mocha drink.

Cargill_GrapefruitBasil_900 — Inspired by the craft cocktail space, Cargill created a grapefruit basil flavored cocktail mixer using EverSweet. Cargill carefully balanced the sweet and sour notes, so the beverage wasn’t too acidic upfront, or too sweet, masking its characterizing flavors. The resulting beverage delivered great sweetness impact and allowed the grapefruit-basil flavor combination to shine.

As consumer demand for great-tasting, reduced-sugar food and beverages continues to grow, and so to does the need for non-artificial, zero-calorie sweetener options. With that in mind, in November 2018, Cargill joined with Royal DSM to form a new joint venture called Avansya.

The new venture will combine both companies’ technologies for producing steviol glycoside products made through fermentation and will market its products under one brand name, EverSweet™. These solutions will give food and beverage manufacturers an even more scalable, sustainable and low cost-in-use solution than if these same molecules were extracted from the stevia leaf.

Cargill pioneered and debuted its fermentation technology in October 2015 with the commercial launch of EverSweet™ Reb D and Reb M sweetener, which enables food and beverage makers to create great-tasting products with deep calorie reductions.

Unlike other stevia products, EverSweet provides sweetness without bitterness or a licorice aftertaste, delivering a more rounded taste profile with a faster onset of sweetness. This dramatic step forward in sweetener technology enables up to 100% sugar replacement.

“In developing EverSweet, our scientists invested more than 300,000 hours studying the stevia leaf, searching for the optimal balance of sweetness and taste,” notes Andy Ohmes, global director-High Intensity Sweeteners, Cargill. “Through this research, they found that two glycosides in the stevia plant, Reb M and Reb D, offered heightened sweetness and a taste closer to real sugar. While these glycosides are rare in the stevia plant, we produce them through fermentation. The result is a cost-efficient, great-tasting sweetener, produced with the environment in mind.”

For more information, visit: www.cargill.com.

This exclusive Prepared Foods webinar looks at the industry’s latest low-and no-sugar new foods and beverages—as well as the new ingredient options to consider for 2024 and beyond.