How Truvia is Made
For a growing number of health conscious consumers, there’s a new zero calorie sweetener that promises to take the guilt out of your life. Truvia is derived from the stevia plant, the same one that has been used to create a number of stevia-based healthy sweeteners available in the market today.
What ends up in your coffee or tea as a zero calorie sweetener making for a guitltfree drink, begins its journey as a shrub that has been used by natives of Central and South America as a sweetener for over 200 years now. The Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is a member of the Asteraceae group of herbs, and is commonly known as sugarleaf. The leaves of the plant are up to 200 times sweeter than sugar, with the sweetness of the leaves rising correspondingly with the plant’s exposure to natural sunlight.
The people of the Paraguayan Guarani tribe have been using the powdered leaves of this shrub to sweeten their drinks, for centuries now. But the plant and its sweetness were unknown to the Western world, until botanist Dr. Moisès Santiago de Bertoni, discovered the stevia plant during his Paraguayan travels.
Root Cultivation
Stevia farming begins with the cultivation of the root cuttings of the plant in greenhouses. Once the seedling has grown to about four inches in height, it is transplanted into the field during the beginning of spring. As summer progresses, the plant continues to grow, with the sunlight adding to the sweetness of the leaves. When small white flowers begin to make their appearance, it’s time to harvest the plant. Harvesting stops once the flowers have bloomed in full, because the plant stops production of glycosides, the components responsible for adding sweetness to the leaves.
The Sweetest Part of the Plant
Food technology experts at Cargill have isolated and identified a compound called rebiana, which is the sweetest part of the plant. This compound is isolated by drying the leaves, and soaking them in water. This fermentation process releases the sweet compound. After the compound is separated, it is purified, and converted into a food grade sweetener. A natural sweetener is now ready for use.
Using Technology to Increase a Sweet Yield
Although stevia has been used as a sweetener in beverages, and as a substitute for sugar, its harvesting and production has never really been undertaken on a global scale. Now, agronomists at Cargill are looking at ways to boost stevia yield by working with farmers to identify the best and most pest resistant stevia plants, in order to create a product that’s more consistent in its quality. A plant breeding program, that aims to separate the best traits of the most high yield stevia plants in order to promote cultivation of high quality plants, is underway. There’s also a need for increasing stevia production to meet the increasing demands of a global health industry. The company currently works with farmers in stevia cultivation and marketing in South America and Asia, where the ingredient has been used for years as a natural sweetener, in countries like Japan. Because stevia is close to 200 times sweeter than sugar, you need lesser quantities of the product to get the same taste. As the quality and consistency of stevia yield grows, the company expects to be able to decrease its shelf space requirements too.