Since several stevia products achieved self-confirmed GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, this plant and its sweet leaves have won great popularity as a major natural sweetener. The global market for stevia soared in 2009 to about 18 times the size of the 2005 market, with current market share about 14 percent. Most of the growth has come from the United States, which now holds about 85 percent of the overall stevia market. Despite accounting for about one-fifth of the U.S. intense-sweetener market, stevia still has room to grow, as the firm noted 70 percent of Americans had not heard of stevia, and 60 percent weren’t interested in trying the natural sweetener.
Price is considered one of the issues, but Jim May, Wisdom Natural Brands, argued if consumers knew about the benefits of stevia, they would be willing to pay more for it than their regular sweetener. “Stevia is good for the body,” he said. “The leaves are extraordinarily healthful, especially for pancreas function.” Additionally, stevia is zero-glycemic, zero-calorie and no-carb, and it can help lower blood pressure, he added. One of the obstacles of stevia growth and education may lie in the retailer. “Natural foods retailers and their customers understand stevia, but grocery stores don’t know anything about it and can’t answer questions about it,” he said. “So, it is difficult to reach consumers of those stores.”
Stevia (Stevia rebauiana) is between 200- and 300-times sweeter than sugar, thanks to numerous crystals or stevia glycosides contained in the leaves. Experts have whittled this family of compounds to rebaudioside A (reb-A), but May argued reb-A does not taste good on its own, but a blend of glycosides has a far superior taste profile than just one glycoside. “Good-quality stevia leaves have 11 glycosides and numerous vitamins and minerals and flavonoids,” he noted. Fortunately, stevia is far too sweet, so you have to blend it with some other compounds to make a tabletop sweetener, according to May.
This blending is where one stevia product differs from another. Wisdom Naturals blends its stevia with inulin prebiotic fiber. May recounted, “In 1995, I found soluble fiber, specifically inulin, was good for intestinal flora, diabetics and weight control.”