Evolva has announced that its patent application for a process to efficiently and sustainably produce next-generation sweeteners via fermentation, including Rebaudioside M (Reb M), has now been published. The patent application was originally filed on February 6, 2013.
According to the company, the ability to produce a Reb M sweetener via fermentation opens up the potential to significantly improve the flavour profile of these important zero-calorie sweeteners, especially at higher usage levels.
The best tasting and sweetest parts of the stevia leaf, such as Reb M, make up only a tiny portion of the leaf (less than 1%), the company said. By producing Reb M using fermentation, Cargill and Evolva can produce the desired sweetness at a scale and cost that is not feasible through extraction of Reb M from the stevia leaf.
For food and beverage producers, Reb M is claimed to offer a number of commercially important advantages, enabling them to formulate better tasting products with less sugar, aiding them in reaching their product cost targets, and allowing for scalability, which is said to be difficult via the leaf.
“This breakthrough will allow consumers all over the world to enjoy products using Reb M at a commercially viable price,” said Neil Goldsmith, Evolva CEO. “This patent application forms part of our ever-expanding IP portfolio on steviol glycosides, which we are confident is the most extensive, and the most commercially significant in this space.”
“We are pleased about the prospects of being able to deliver zero-calorie, great tasting sweeteners,” said David Henstrom, vice president for Health Ingredients, Cargill. “At a time when obesity rates continue to rise globally, we are working with food and beverage manufacturers to allow them to formulate a vast array of reduced sugar products with Reb M, which is one of the best tasting steviol glycoside sweeteners.”
Cargill and Evolva announced in late 2013 that their development project to produce fermentation-based steviol glycosides had moved into pilot scale ahead of schedule. On May 21, 2014, the companies announced that a key technical milestone had been met.
