European manufacturers should look to France and the USA for stevia lessons
With stevia set for its final EU approval notice within a matter of weeks, FoodNavigator caught up with PureCircle's VP sales and marketing Jordi Ferre at the company's Everything Stevia event in London.
Ferre explained that he believes the success of stevia in large markets across the Americas, Australasia, and parts of Asia means that European manufacturers will adopt stevia much faster than industry did when the natural sweetener was approved in other markets.
"Other markets have taken that first step to launch products, and have gone through the route of understanding how to position it for consumers, and how to formulate with it, so that knowledge of three years is coming to Europe," said Ferre.
"That's going to be a better staring point than three years ago in the US," he explained.
Ferre added that, in addition to formulating a good tasting product - which itself has become easier to achieve in recent years - food and beverage manufacturers must also learn how to position and market their products correctly for the European consumer. By looking to successes in other markets, he believes that the European food and drink industry has a head start on the starting blocks for stevia success.
