Cargill Introduces Truvia Natural Sweetener Brand, the First Natural, Zero-Calorie, Great-Tasting Sweetener

Cargill, in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, has developed rebiana as a natural, zero-calorie ingredient which will be marketed by Cargill under the brand name TRUVIA.

16/05/08 Research published electronically in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Food and Chemical Toxicology clearly establishes the safety of rebiana (common or usual name for high-purity Rebaudioside A from stevia) for general use to sweeten foods and beverages, according to experts at Cargill and The Coca-Cola Company.

Rebiana is the first consistent, high-purity sweetener composed of rebaudioside A, the best-tasting part of the stevia leaf. Beginning in 2004, Cargill commissioned a rigorous safety evaluation program for rebiana in consultation with leading scientists.

Cargill, in partnership with The Coca-Cola Company, has developed rebiana as a natural, zero-calorie ingredient which will be marketed by Cargill under the brand name TRUVIA.

"These newly published data complement the body of existing scientific research on steviol glycosides, the sweet components of the stevia leaf," said Leslie Curry, regulatory and scientific affairs director, Cargill Food and Ingredient Systems. "The rebiana research program affirmed positive safety data from earlier studies on purified steviol glycosides and addressed unresolved questions resulting from studies with crude stevia extracts."

“TRUVIA natural sweetener was developed to meet the strong consumer demand for a natural, zero calorie way to sweeten foods and beverages. Rebiana provides a new great tasting alternative that meets that demand,” said Zanna McFerson, business director for Cargill Health and Nutrition. “The results of this research program pave the way to bring this long sought after sweetener to U.S. consumers.”

Although stevia is sold in the U.S. as a dietary supplement, rebiana will be the first available sweetener for foods and beverages that has been purified from the stevia plant. Unlike many existing stevia products, which generally contain crude extracts of the plant, rebiana is a fully-characterized product that is consistent in quality and contains only the best-tasting components of the stevia leaf.

“We are pleased that these studies have proved definitively that rebiana is safe,” said Dr. Rhona Applebaum, vice president and chief scientific and regulatory officer of The Coca-Cola Company.

Study Results

The rebiana safety evaluation program included metabolism and pharmacokinetic studies, general and multi-generational safety studies, intake studies and human studies. Cargill sponsored the studies to affirm earlier safety findings for purified steviol glycosides, and to confirm that rebiana is broken down by the body in the same way as stevioside, which has been studied extensively. Rebaudioside A – the main component of rebiana – is nearly identical in chemical structure to stevioside.

In safety studies, daily consumption of rebiana equivalent to a 150-lb person drinking between 1,000 and 2,000 8-ounce servings of rebiana-sweetened beverage had no negative effects on the general health, reproduction, growth or development of adults or their offspring.

In clinical studies, daily consumption of 1,000 mg rebiana – equivalent to consuming 29 packets of sweetener or drinking approximately eight 8-ounce servings of a rebiana-sweetened beverage every day for 4 or 16 weeks – had no effect on blood pressure in healthy subjects with normal or low-normal blood pressure; or on blood sugar control in subjects with type 2 diabetes.