Galam offers bespoke stevia blends

Its brand HiSweet blends stevia with sugars, such as fructose, sucrose erythritol and other polyols, with bulking agents and natural flavouring agents or masking agents.

A spokeswoman told FoodNavigator.com: “Sweetening with stevia is much more complicated than sweetening with any other high intensive sweetener. The best results are achieved by combining fructose or sucrose to optimally fit certain formulations.​

Sweet taste​

“HiSweet blends combine the right collection of ingredients (sugars and flavourings) in the right formulation to replace up to 100% of a product’s added sugars and still ensure a great sweet taste.”​

Available in liquid or powder form, the blends are designed for a wide range of applications including soft drinks, dairy, table top sweeteners, fruit-based applications, bakery, desserts, cereals and ketchup.

 ​Dr Joseph Soler, a sweetener blending expert from the Galam Iberia facility, said: “Reb-A, at high concentration (above 95%), has a very sweet-sharp taste, but is a rather one-dimensional molecule. SG 95% is based on different steviol glycosides and, therefore has a fuller, more rounded taste. ​

“By combining both these stevia extracts, plus other natural sugars, we’ve achieved a blend with a sweet taste much more similar to that of sugar, with a better mouth feel, improved flavour profile and high intensity sweetness - sweetened by natural sweetener systems. Each individual blend is built to meet our customers' specific needs and is a result of mutual R&D efforts in finding the optimal sweetening formulation. ”​

Bitterness​

Dr Fernando Schved, vice president business development and research and development, said that the blends overcame the challenge of steviol glycosides regarding late onset, lingering after taste or bitterness to preserve the sweetness sensation. “With bitter applications, our stevia-based blends achieve the optimal balance between sweetness and sourness to reduce after taste,” ​he said. “For dairy products, we’ve overcome the lack of mouth-feel, caused by sugar and fat reduction.”​

In chocolate or cocoa drinks, the firm said it had achieved blends which improved sweetness intensity and enhanced original flavours. “In complicated soya applications, we’ve counteracted soy’s off-notes when faced with stevia characteristics like lingering effect,” ​said Schved.

HiSweet stevia blends are available worldwide.

In addition to sweeteners , Galam Group subsidiaries supply ingredients and produce high-quality lipid-based biofunctional products.