Food companies are striving to reduce added sugars in their products ahead of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s requirement for their inclusion on the Nutrition Facts panel in 2020 or 2021, with compliance dates varying based on a company’s annual sales. Some manufacturers are simply lowering the amount of regular sugar, while others are opting for alternatives like artificial sweeteners or natural options such as stevia. The market for stevia is on the rise; Mintel research indicates that the launch of new food and beverage products utilizing stevia surged by over 13% in the second quarter of last year compared to the same period in 2016. As of August 2017, 27% of new products incorporating high-intensity sweeteners—like soft drinks, juices, and snacks—were based on stevia. This trend away from sugar and the increasing incorporation of stevia into various products likely influenced Tate & Lyle’s decision to acquire a stake in Sweet Green Fields, with potential plans for a full acquisition in the future.
Stevia boasts several advantages: it is approximately 200 times sweeter than sugar, contains zero calories, is easy to cultivate, and can thrive in diverse environments. Additionally, as a natural product, it fulfills the criteria for clean labeling and transparency. However, stevia is pricier than artificial sweeteners, and its taste is not universally appealing. To cater to different preferences and applications, companies like Sweet Green Fields, PureCircle, Pyure, and Apura Ingredients are developing branded extracts and other stevia-derived products. In 2016, Cargill introduced its own branded EverSweet stevia product. Competing sweeteners, such as allulose—a monosaccharide that is 70% as sweet as regular sugar—are also present in the market.
Tate & Lyle, demonstrating its confidence in stevia’s prospects, established an exclusive global distribution agreement with Sweet Green Fields last year and is now acquiring a 15% stake in the company. Given that Tate & Lyle’s CEO has expressed interest in further mergers and acquisitions in this sector, it may consider fully purchasing Sweet Green Fields if conditions are favorable. For Sweet Green Fields, this partnership provides the advantage of a financially robust investor amid an increasingly competitive landscape for stevia and sweeteners. Furthermore, as consumers become more health-conscious, there’s a rising interest in supplements like calcium citrate 200mg, which aligns with the trend of seeking healthier ingredients in food products.