Food additives data book - wordpres

TECHNOLOGY OF USE IN FOODS:
Steviol is the aglucon of stevioside. On its own, produces an unacceptable liquorice-like taste in cola beverages. Combined with fructose to produce 50%
calorie-reduced soft drinks; combined with polyols in sugarless chewing gums; combined with sucrose in calorie-reduced sugar cubes.
Gums using stevioside are considered highly acceptable by consumers.
Used in Japan in sugarless chewing gums, soft drinks, table-top sweeteners, juices and other products. Also used as a flavour modifier and to suppress
pungent flavours in pickles, dried seafoods, fish, meat, bean pastes and soy sauce.
Stable at pH 3 to 9; withstands 100°C for 1 hour at pH 3 to 9. At room temperature, stable in citric acidified beverages for 3 months; stable in phosphoric
acidified beverages for 5 months; also stable in the presence of salt. No browning reaction.
Stevioside has low solubility in alcohol.
In soft drinks, sweetness ranges from 140 to 280 times that of sucrose.
Not recommended as the sole sweetener due to its bitter/licorice taste.
Taste can be improved by increasing the fraction of rebaudioside-A or by combining with fructose, lactose, hitidine, chlorodeoxysugars, cyclodextrin,
aspartame or cyclamate.
Stevia extracts are generally shelf-stable. In carbonated beverages, there is no reported degradation over 5 months at 22°C or lower; some breakdown of
rebaudioside-A (36%) and stevioside (25%) at 37°C over 4 months.
Stevia extracts do not interact with other food components in soft drinks.
Stevia detection in soft drinks best using HPLC, but can be performed using GLC or colorimetric methods.
Currently used in Japan by over 50 companies in soft drinks, instant juices, and fruit-flavoured drinks; compatible in fruit beverages. Sweetness intensity at
10% sucrose is 150. Soluble in dioxane
SYNERGISTS: Glycyrrhizin (mixture is commercially available in Japan)/ Aspartame/ Cyclamate/ Acesulfame-K/
Sucrose/ Glucose/ Fructose
ANTAGONISTS: Degradation in carbonated beverages greater with phosphoric acid than citric acid systems.
Rebaudioside-A breaks down under UV light.
FOOD SAFETY ISSUES: No significant mutagenic or genotoxic activity.
Question of whether stevioside and rebaudioside are degraded in the bowel to steviol, which has
biological risks. Unclear whether stevioside is excreted unmetabolised or is reduced to steviol (this has
been observed in rats, but not in humans).
There have been reports linking stevioside with anti-hormonal effects and infertility, but studies have
not confirmed this.
Non-cariogenic
Stevioside 983