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.