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From the field instead of the factory: Natural sweetener stevia to be finally ready for the market in 2016 [13.11.13]
Field trials at the University of Hohenheim to provide long-term yield numbers, laboratory tests to prove wholesomeness.
Using genetically modified yeasts a U.S. company wants to produce steviol glycosides, which have nothing to do with the sweet herb from South America. The alternative to this purely artificial product comes from the University of Hohenheim. There, an agricultural scientist is on the verge of bringing a natural state stevia sweetener to the market - thus offering a new perspective for farmers who so far have lived from growing tobacco. Subsidies, however, will no longer be provided from 2014 onwards. The European Union is funding the research project with more than 2.3 million euros. This makes the project one of the heavyweights of research at the University of Hohenheim.
Dr. Udo Kienle is involved in the Go4Stevia project to produce natural stevia-based sweetner.
The U.S. food giant Cargill wants to produce the stevia sweetener steviol glycoside from genetically modified yeasts. The new method is highly efficient: a single factory could make the entire current stevia cultivation area in the world obsolete. The production is also very cost effective: the price could fall from the current level of up to 180 euros per kilogram to less than ten euros. By 2020, Cargill aims to cover 20 percent of the global demand for sweeteners.
Since the end of 2011 steviol glycosides are approved as a food additive (E960). Steviol glycosides are approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar. You do not get fat because they contain no calories and do not cause tooth decay. Also in Germany, more and more people are reaching for products that contain steviol glycosides, which are produced by a chemical process from the plant Stevia rebaudiana. Originally, the stevia plant is native to Paraguay.
"Due to the new manufacturing process steviol glycosides have become a purely artificial substance without any connection to nature," says Dr. Udo Kienle from the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at the University of Hohenheim. "Yet 40 percent of consumers place value on natural foods." As a counter-proposal he plans to bring a natural, low-calorie sweetener from the stevia rebaudiana plant to market.
EU to cut subsidies to tobacco farmers - stevia an alternative
Dr. Kienle's plans also contain an agricultural policy aspect: From 2014 onwards, the European Union will not longer provide subsidies to farmers who cultivate and make their living from tobacco. "The tobacco growers around the Mediterranean must therefore inevitably switch to other products that bring a similarly high market value as tobacco," explains Dr. Kienle. Stevia can meet this criterion and is therefore a possible alternative.
"If you want to bring a farmer to switch to another crop, you have to provide him with reliable earnings forecasts," says Dr. Kienle. He therefore has been cultivating stevia for many years fields on a trial basis in several European countries around the Mediterranean. During this time he assessed crop yields and whether they remain fairly constant over the years. This research will be conducted in close cooperation with various tobacco cooperatives from Greece, Italy , Portugal and Spain. Starting from 2016 large-scale cultivation is planned in these countries, as well as production of the low-calorie natural sweetener based on Stevia rebaudiana.
Untreated stevia sweeteners should be ready for the market by 2016
"Whoever wants to introduce a new food product to the EU market must observe high safety standards," says Dr. Kienle. This would include proof of wholesomeness. "While I am absolutely sure that stevia is harmless, we still have a lack of definitive evidence."
Stevia: sweetness without the calories or cavities
Such proof is to be provided by rats living in laboratories in Bologna and Posen and eating the natural sweetener stevia. "The project partners examine the animals for tumors and examine whether stevia inhibits the intake of vitamins, trace elements and other micronutrients" explains Dr. Kienle. Only when the scientists can exclude both is the safety of stevia sweetener considered proven.
By 2016, the natural sweetener from the stevia plant should be ready for market entry.
Background information: research project Go4Stevia
The full name of the project, abbreviated as "Go4Stevia" is "Stevia rebaudiana as a diversification alternative for European Tobacco Farmers to Strengthen the European Competitiveness". The research project started in February 2013 and is to run for three years. The European Union is supporting the project with a total of around 2.3 million euros. Project Coordinator is the agricultural engineer Prof. Dr. Thomas Jungbluth, head of the Department of Livestock Systems Engineering at the University of Hohenheim. Also involved are Dr. Morando Soffritti of the Ramazzini Institute in Bologna and Dr. Magdalena Czlapka-Matyasik of the Poznan University of Life Sciences.
Background information: heavyweights of research
Approximately 27 million euros in external funding were acquired by scientists at the University of Hohenheim in the past year for research and teaching. The series "heavyweights of research" presents, in no particular order, outstanding research projects with external funding of at least 250,000 euros in the experimental or 125,000 euros in the book-based sciences.
Text: Weik / Klebs
Contact for press:
Dr. Udo Kienle, Universität Hohenheim, Fachgebiet Verfahrenstechnik der Tierhaltungssysteme, Tel.: 0711/459 22845, E-Mail: u-kienle@uni-hohenheim.de
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