Sweet future?

The mass of recent publicity concerning Stevia, and other natural sweeteners such as Lo Han Guo, could be the prelude to regulators approving their use in a range of different foods. But just because a legal restriction might be lifted, that does not mean that the technical challenges will get any easier.

"There's a lot of interest in natural sweeteners at present and also huge potential" says Leanne Dodds of RSSL's Product and Ingredient Innovation Department. "However, food companies shouldn't assume that it will be easy to switch from one sweetener to another should the opportunity arise. There are all kinds of technical challenges involved, around issues such as taste, processing, stability and storage. We've already started working with several clients who are assessing whether natural sweetners could be used in specific products, and there are no guarantees. Other food producers would do well to follow their lead and carry out formulation studies now, so that should the regulations change, the development work has all been doneto enable products to be launched as soon as possible."