Malaysia’s stevia sweetener producer PureCircle has launched its new Sigma-Xcelerator product development tool to provide customised ingredient combinations.

The combinations enhance product taste and meet customer requirements such as sugar reduction, speed to market, cost and solubility.

The stevia leaf comprises more than 40 steviol glycosides, each with different performance attributes that can help identify the right combination of ingredients for a specific product.

"We now understand how stevia sweeteners work best at achieving modest to deep sugar reduction levels while enabling great taste in food and beverage products.”

PureCircle marketing and innovation head Faith Son said: “The Sigma-Xcelerator tool provides individualised support for food and beverage companies by ultimately making stevia an easier ingredient to work with.

“This tool will simplify our clients’ product formulation work by reducing development time, allowing great-tasting products to come to market more quickly and efficiently.

“By combining the best-tasting stevia glycosides in varying amounts, we now understand how stevia sweeteners work best at achieving modest to deep sugar reduction levels while enabling great taste in food and beverage products.”

PureCircle claims that its new tool helps to identify suitable steviol glycoside combinations that best meet a product’s taste and sugar reduction challenges.

The tool also enables the company to offer turnkey solutions to its customers to simplify their development work to achieve the sugar-like taste in food and beverages.

PureCircle Sigma Solutions offers combinations of key stevia glycosides designed to work with different categories.