New Leaf Variety Yields More Stevia Ingredients

Chicago, Illinois, November 4, 2019 – PureCircle (LSE: PURE), the world’s leading producer and innovator of great-tasting stevia sweeteners for the global beverage and food industries, has developed and is now expanding use of a new stevia leaf variety which provides significant advantages compared to previous generations of stevia plants.

Carefully cultivated by PureCircle and successfully field-tested, this new stevia varietal yields greater quantities of our great-tasting next generation stevia ingredients. This breakthrough —  increasing the effective yield of PureCircle’s stevia plants — enhances the company’s production efficiency, and even further improves its ability to deliver a sustainable supply of these next generation stevia leaf ingredients to food and beverage companies.

With that greater yield, this new stevia variety – the result of the company’s expertise in stevia innovation and agronomy  — provides further cost effectiveness as greater quantities of ingredients can be sourced from each leaf.  PureCircle’s innovation strength has led to its securing 200 patents globally related to stevia.

PureCircle’s mission is to provide food and beverage companies even greater access to our non-GMO stevia ingredients cost effectively for them.  That helps them offer their consumers expanded selections of healthy, low- and no-calories foods and beverages using our plant-based stevia ingredients. That democratizes – or spreads access to – healthy foods and beverages with less or no added sugar and sweetened with a natural, plant-based sweetener.  That is good for the business of the food and beverage companies and for the health and wellness of their consumers.

This year, 20% of PureCircle’s stevia plants were comprised of this new variety, and the Company plans to switch 90% of its stevia crop to this variety in 2020.

All of PureCircle’s ingredients begin with the stevia plant.  A sweetener is a “stevia sweetener” only if it starts with the stevia plant.  Stevia-like ingredients produced in laboratories by others are not stevia ingredients.  The Company works with farmers in Asia, Africa, Latin America and North America to grow and source its proprietary stevia plants. PureCircle’s agricultural programs, not only provide the company with high-quality stevia, but also help support sustainability and farm communities.

Commenting on the breakthrough stevia leaf variety, PureCircle CEO Maga Malsagov stated:

“We are excited about our expansion program for our latest stevia varietal. It is the result of, and a testament to, our world-class agronomy and innovation. This further enhances our ability to provide food and beverage companies access to the best tasting content from the leaf, offering them a globally scaled supply and a cost-efficiency which has never before been possible.”

In the last decade. largely due to PureCircle’s efforts, stevia has come a long way.  Some years ago, it was viewed as a plant-based, zero-calorie, single-ingredient sweetener which worked well in some beverage and food applications.  Today, our next generation stevia leaf sweeteners offer sugar-like taste and work well in broad array of beverage and food products.  We maximize use of each stevia plant to offer a robust portfolio of next generation stevia leaf ingredients including Reb M, flavors and antioxidants. These ingredients help beverage and food companies increase their offerings of zero- and low-calorie products without sacrificing taste.

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Media Enquiries:

Jackson Pillow, Media Relations Manager

Email:  Jackson.Pillow@purecircle.com 

Phone: +1 630 256 8394