Image source: photo-ac
Recently, 18 national food safety standards, including the "National Standard for Food Safety, Food Additives, Steviol Glycosides", have begun to solicit public comments. As a natural sugar substitute that is popular in the market, stevia has been used in recent years to replace sucrose in various new food and beverage products. From 2014 to 2018, new product launches using stevia increased globally by an average of 13% per year, according to innova data. In the 2019 global food and beverage new products, the use of stevia as a sweetener has been second only to sucralose and acesulfame potassium.
China is a big exporter of stevia, the current domestic planting area reached 400,000 mu, stevia output of 9,000 tons, industrial scale of 4 billion. China's stevia extract has been at the top of the extract export list for many years, exporting 6,000 tons in 2019 and earning 280 million US dollars in foreign exchange. The update of relevant regulations will undoubtedly have a significant impact. So compared with gb 8270-2014, what are the modifications of the new version of the steviol glycoside national standard for solicitation?
Modification of the standard scope
Steviol glycosides are based on stevia rebaudiana bertoni dried leaves as raw materials, extracted and refined, glycosides including steviol, rebodi glycoside a, rebodi glycosides b, rebodi glycosides c, rebodi glycosides d, rebodi glycosides e, rebodi glycosides f, rebodi glycosides m, rebodisides n, rebodiside o, duquesin a, steteacsides and stevia disaccharides, etc., the content, sweetness and taste of these glycosides in the leaves of stevia are different, Among them, steviol and rebodiside a are the most abundant, while other glycosides are relatively rare.
The scope of several major international regulations on the scope of sweet glycoside compounds is not the same, of which gb 8270-2014 has 9, and the United States Food Chemicals Code (fcc XI.), the Japanese Food Additives Document (jsfa 9), the Korean Food Additives Codex (2019) is the same, the European Commission Regulation (eu) no.231/2012 has 11, and the Codex Alimentarius Commission Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives (jecfa 2017) has 13.
Source: National Standard for Food Safety, Food Additives, Steviol Glycosides (Draft for Comments
With reference to jecfa 2017, the draft for comments adds four glycosides such as rebodiside e, rebodiside n, rebodiside o, and rebodiside m on the basis of gb 8270-2014, and adds the molecular formula, structural formula and relative molecular mass of 13 glycosides. The biggest impact is undoubtedly the increase of rebodiside m, rebodiside m is also known as "the next generation of stevia", as can be seen from the following figure, in the steviol glycosides, rebodidiside m is the highest sweetness, while it has almost no bitterness and aftertaste, the closest to the taste of sucrose. It can be said that the higher the content of rebodiside m in stevia, the more it is like real sugar, but the original content of rebodiside m in stevia leaves is very rare, so how to increase the production of rebodiside m has become a problem overcome by major stevia production enterprises in the world.
Image source: development of next generation stevia sweetener: rebaudioside m
Currently, there are three main ways to obtain large amounts of rebodiside m. One is synthesized from stevia extract by transgenic yeast, which can obtain high-purity reb-m (reb-m 95%), and the processing aid used in the synthesis process is uridine 5'-diphosphate-glucuronylase, which can promote the conversion of glucuronic acid into small molecule glycoside bonds, and the final product is still non-GMO, representing the product of Swissgen's bestvia reb-m. The other is the use of genetically engineered yeast to ferment glucose into rebaudioside m, but the production process does not use stevia leaves, so it can no longer be regarded as a sweetener of "natural plant origin", represented by DSM's avansya reb m and Cargill's eversweet. There is also a breeding of stevia varieties containing a large amount of Rebaudioside m, represented by the starleaf of Pisaco, which produces 20% more Rebaudioside m than regular stevia.
Modification of sensory requirements
This draft adds the status of "particles" to gb 8270-2014.
Source: National Standard for Food Safety, Food Additives, Steviol Glycosides (Draft for Solicitation of Comments)
Modification of physicochemical indicators
In terms of physical and chemical indicators, the draft for comments modifies the index requirements for the content of steviol glycosides (measured by dry basis), changing the content (based on dry bases) from 85% to 90%, which puts forward higher requirements for the quality of steviol glycosides; also modifies the name of the indicator of "burning residue" as "ash"; the name of the indicator of "total arsenic (measured in as)" is "arsenic (as)"; and the requirement of ph in the identification test is placed in the physical and chemical index.
Modification of the test method
In terms of test methods, the "method 1: calculating the content of rebodiside a and 8 other 8 glycosides (st formula ratio conversion) method 2: calculating 9 glycosids (st formula ratio conversion)" of gb 8270-2014 was modified to "1. Calculate the content of 8 glycosids such as rebodiside a (ra formula ratio conversion); 2. Calculate the content of 5 glycosids such as rebodiside d (rd formula ratio conversion)"; the ph value (in acidity) was added.
brief summary
"Sugar-free" is one of the hottest topics nowadays, consumers who do not want to sacrifice taste and do not want to gain weight are increasingly favoring "0 sugar 0 calorie 0 fat" sugar-free drinks, which also promotes the continuous growth of the sugar substitute market. Stevia does not cause an increase in blood sugar concentration after human intake, nor does it promote the rise in insulin concentration in the blood, which is better tolerated and healthier than sugar alcohol substitutes, which is its advantage. However, a large number of stevia with rebodiside a as the main ingredient on the market has the disadvantage of poor taste, making it less popular in China than erythritol. With the continuous improvement of stevia-related regulations, the new generation of stevia with rebodiside m as the core will undoubtedly become the mainstream of the future industry, which also puts forward higher requirements for domestic stevia producers.