Food industry giant Cargill “has created a sugarlike product that seems perfect,” said the Minneapolis Star Tribune. But while it tastes like sugar and has no calories, it comes from the lab, so “Cargill faces an enormous marketing challenge with its breakthrough ingredient.”
The sweetener, which will be sold under the name EverSweet, is the first sugar substitute made by fermentation to be approved by the FDA, said the Star Tribune. “Its biggest selling point is that it is inspired by stevia, a plant grown in South America that produces an non-calorie sweetener.” Cargill researchers identified two types of molecules on the stevia leaf that produce a sweet taste without the bitter aftertaste of stevia. They then developed a process that uses baker’s yeast and simple sugars to produce EverSweet.
Brand advisor Eve Paul told the Star Tribune that there are “a lot of skeptical consumers” when it comes to food products. Concern over dietary sugar means that all sweeteners are closely scrutinized. A Cargill product manager said consumers and the maker “struggle with how to position [EverSweet] in the spectrum between natural and not. For us, it’s all about giving customers choice.” A launch date for EverSweet is uncertain.