John Myers
Stevia leaves are considered a novel food in the EU. The leaves cannot be used as food. Exceptions are the use in herbal and fruit teas and processing into a sweetener.
Суштинските работи накратко:
- The stevia plant and its leaves are considered a novel food in the EU and have not yet been approved as such.
- An exception is the use of stevia leaves as an ingredient in tea blends, since the leaves were used in teas in the EU before 1997.
- Extracts from the stevia plant (steviol glycosides) are permitted as sweetener E 960 with legally specified maximum amounts. The sweetener does not fall under the Novel Food Regulation, so it can be used for various foods.
- E 960 is about 200-400 times sweeter than table sugar.
What is behind the advertising promises for stevia or steviol glycosides?
Consumers are often given the image of a “healthy sweetness from nature”.
While stevia is a natural plant with a complex structure, steviol glycosides are isolated from the plant using a chemical, multi-stage extraction process and must meet legally defined purity requirements. Even if the raw material is a plant, the manufacturing process and the extracts obtained no longer have much to do with “naturalness”.
Thus, the sweetener is an industrial product – just as refined sugar is an industrial product that is obtained from the “natural” plant of sugar beet or sugar cane.
The sweetener is said to be a “healthy alternative to sugar”.
About 10 years ago, stevia triggered a big hype in this country. There was great hope that all the problems relating to diabetes and sugar consumption would be solved – but this wishful thinking did not come true.
In fact, steviol glycosides provide no calories as they are indigestible for humans. Due to the special sensory properties, such as a relatively slow onset of sweetness and the liquorice-like, bitter aftertaste, sugar can only be replaced by the sweetener to a small extent in foods. In addition, the missing volume of the sugar must be compensated during baking if sugar is to be replaced by steviol glycosides.
Stevia has long been known as a medicinal herb in South America and is used there for various ailments. Stevia is said to have a blood sugar and blood pressure lowering, vasodilating, plaque inhibiting and antimicrobial effect. However, these effects have not been scientifically proven. Statements on the health effects of stevia or steviol glycosides are therefore not permitted on food.
“Stevia sweetener”
This formulation of sweetener/sweetener gives consumers the wrong impression of the composition, as they expect a без калории product made exclusively from steviol glycosides. But that is not the case in most cases.
Substances containing calories, such as the polysaccharide maltodextrin or table sugar, are often used as fillers. Some manufacturers also use the calorie-free sugar substitute erythritol instead. If you want to do without calories completely, you should therefore study the list of ingredients carefully.
What are the health risks of stevia or steviol glycosides?
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) dispelled earlier concerns that stevia was carcinogenic and mutagenic, as long as the maximum levels are observed.
Only small amounts may be used in food to ensure that the daily intake (ADI value) set by EFSA is not exceeded.
The ADI value (Acceptable Daily Intake) indicates the amount of a substance that can be consumed daily over the entire lifetime without any health risks being expected.
For steviol glycosides, the ADI value is four milligrams per kilogram of body weight. This can easily be exceeded, especially by children due to their low body weight. Therefore, lower maximum levels apply to soft drinks. Steviol glycosides are approved for more than 30 food categories in the EU, so increased intake levels can also occur if multiple products sweetened with stevia are consumed.
What is stevia and what’s in it?
The plant Stevia rebaudiana is also known as sweetweed or honeyweed and originally comes from South America, but is now also cultivated in China. The leaves of the plant contain sweet-tasting plant compounds called steviol glycosides. Traditionally, the dried and crushed stevia leaves are used in South America to sweeten teas and dishes.
The mixture of different steviol glycosides, which is extracted from the leaves, is also often referred to as stevia – not quite correctly. Glycosides are plant compounds that are attached to a sugar residue for water solubility and transport within the plant. So far, about eleven steviol glycosides are known, which are responsible for the sweet taste.
Other ingredients in the leaves include secondary plant substances, vitamin C, vitamin B1, iron, magnesium, selenium, zinc and unsaturated fatty acids.
What is stevia used for?
When using stevia, a distinction must be made between the stevia leaves and the stevia extract.
The leaves of the stevia plant are classified as “novel foods” under the so-called Novel Food Regulation. This means that the herb cannot be sold as food until it has been proven that it is harmless to health. So far this has not happened.
However, there are two exceptions:
- Since 2017, stevia leaves can be added as an ingredient to herbal and fruit tea mixtures. However, its use is prohibited for all other foods.
- The extract from the leaves, the steviol glycosides, on the other hand, are approved as sweetener E 960 in the EU. Steviol glycosides are used in over 30 food categories, mostly low-calorie products.
For example, you can find soft drinks, jams, yoghurts, ketchups, candies, liquorice and even chocolate sweetened with steviol glycosides on the market. The sweetener is only approved for conventional foods – it is therefore not found in organically produced products.
Table sweeteners, i.e. sprinkles, liquid sweeteners or tablets for sweetening drinks or food with steviol glycosides, can also be found on the market.
For cosmetic preparations, aqueous preparations are made with powder from stevia leaves, which are stirred into creams, lotions or bath additives, for example. The powder is also often offered for dental care.
What should be considered when consuming stevia?
When consuming food sweetened with E 960 on a daily basis, consumers should ensure that they comply with the specified tolerable daily intake of 4 mg per kilogram of body weight – particular caution should be exercised when using table sweeteners with steviol glycosides, as the packaging often lacks corresponding information.
- Table sweeteners with steviol glycosides are many times more expensive than the amount of household sugar or other sweeteners that is comparable in terms of sweetening power.
- Stevia leaves have to travel a long way to get to us – the transport unnecessarily burdens the environment and the climate.
- The use of sweeteners also supports the habituation effect to the sweet taste.
- Stevia leaves that are marketed as cosmetic products must not be labeled as food or give the impression that they are food.
