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PureCircle, the world’s leading producer and innovator of great tasting, zero-calorie stevia sweeteners, announces its plans to expand its
India footprint and commitment to help Indian companies reduce 250 billion calories in the Indian diet by 2020. This exemplifies the company’s commitment to traceability, and helping food and beverage companies in India to launch new low to zero sugar added products with plant-based stevia from farm to finished product. The company recently presented the latest in stevia research, and updates on local stevia initiatives underway in India at IUFoST2018.
As per a report by the Indian Council of Medical Research, the Public Health Foundation of India and Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, 72 million Indians suffer from Type-2 diabetes today and is expected to almost double to 134 million by 2025. Stevia is a zero calorie, sustainable, 250-300 times sweeter than sugar and a healthier, natural alternative to artificial sweeteners. PureCircle is disrupting stevia as India’s answer to the rising graph of Non communicable diseases such as Diabetes, Obesity etc. caused by high sugar, salt and fat consumption. Stevia can act as a powerful tool for the country to come out of the infamous reputation of being “the diabetic capital of the world”.
Commenting on stevia’s sustainability and PureCircle’s vision for India, PureCircleHead of the South East Asia Region Navneet Singh said, “PureCircle is the market leader in high purity stevia ingredients with 75% market share. Stevia market is $200-250 million market today growing at 20-25% CAGR. India has a tremendously important role to play in growing this market as it is one of the largest consumers of sugar
globally. Stevia is a sustainable crop, which is in high demand by the global food and beverage industry. PureCircle is test-farming several locations in India with its StarleafTM stevia variety, which contains more of the best-tasting stevia sweeteners than other stevia plant variants. India has the land, climatic condition, farming expertise and entrepreneurial spirit to contribute significatly to global demand of naturally-sourced, non GMO stevia sweeteners.”
As per a Mintel Global New Products Database, global beverage and food launches with stevia are up sharply in 2018 with Asia/Pacific witnessing an unprecednted 42% growth year over year for H1 2018 vs. 2017. Hot beverages, chocolate confectionary and dairy currently represent the leading category for product launches with stevia this year. PureCircle is expecting a whole host of launches in 2019 including those from major brands in powder soft drinks, flavoured milks, carbonated drinks, juices, condiments, nutraceutical products etc.
PureCircle has also announced its plans to increase plantings of its Starleaf stevia variety to supply significantly more Reb M to global beverage and food companies. As the result of ongoing innovation, research and development work with stevia, to date PureCircle has been granted more than 100 stevia-related patents. These patents plus more than 250 patents pending and other strong intellectual property are directed to a wide range of stevia-related products and processes.