PureCircle Brings Its Next Generation Stevia To Food Ingredients Europe 2019 in Paris

The Company will showcase its new zero-added-sugar gourmet ice cream and its great-tasting stevia ingredients at this key European innovation event, stand 6D91

CHICAGO, Nov. 25, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Purecircle (LSE: PURE), the world's leading producer and innovator of great-tasting stevia sweeteners for the global beverage and food industries, will be showcasing its next generation stevia leaf ingredients – and some delicious products made with them -- at Food Ingredients (Fi) Europe stand 6D91 in Paris, France 3-5 December.

For the first time, the Company will bring PureCircle Gourmet Ice Cream with zero added sugar to Europe for attendees to enjoy. PureCircle will craft its indulgent ice cream onsite in two classic flavors: chocolate and vanilla.  PureCircle Ice Cream is sweetened with the company’s next generation stevia sweetener.  It was introduced this past summer in Chicago, the site of the company’s global headquarters. 

The Company served the ice cream to thousands of people in Chicago and received overwhelmingly positive responses with consumers stating their intent to purchase the ice cream, and that the ice cream improved their taste perception of stevia as an ingredient. PureCircle conducted international survey research about the ice cream product and will be sharing the survey results with attendees at stand at stand 6D91.

In addition to ice cream, PureCircle will offer a robust menu of no added sugar products made with its sugar-like, plant-based, next generation stevia leaf ingredients.  Attendees visiting PureCircle’s exhibit space will be treated to sweet and savoury food and beverage items, including smoky barbeque crisps, chocolate truffles, a rose lemonade and chili spiced nuts among many others, all taste enhanced with stevia.

PureCircle recently announced it is expanding use of its new proprietary stevia leaf variety. Carefully cultivated by PureCircle and successfully field-tested, this new stevia varietal yields greater quantities of its sugar-like next generation stevia ingredients compared to previous generations of stevia plants. This breakthrough further improves PureCircle’s ability to deliver an ample, sustainable supply of next generation stevia leaf ingredients to food and beverage companies; those ingredients include sweeteners, flavors and antioxidants in addition to other functional ingredients. Fi Europe attendees will experience first-hand the improved taste performance and quality of these plant-based ingredients.

All of PureCircle’s ingredients begin with the stevia plant.  A sweetener is a "stevia leaf sweetener” only if it starts with the stevia plant.  Stevia-like ingredients produced in laboratories by others are not stevia leaf 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.

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, the Company’s next generation stevia leaf sweeteners offer sugar-like taste and help beverage and food companies increase their offerings of low and zero added sugar products without sacrificing taste.  PureCircle is able to supply these ingredients in the significant quantities beverage and food companies require and cost effectively to them.

Enquiries:

Media

Jackson Pillow, Media Relations Manager
Email:  Jackson.Pillow@purecircle.com  Phone: +1 630 256 8394

About PureCircle

• PureCircle is the only company that combines advanced R&D with full vertical integration from farm to high-quality, great-tasting innovative stevia sweeteners.
• The Company collaborates with farmers who grow the stevia plants and with food and beverage companies which seek to improve their low- and no-calorie formulations using a sweetener from plants.
• PureCircle will continue to: lead in research, development and innovation; produce a growing supply of multiple varieties of stevia sweeteners with sugar-like taste, using all necessary and appropriate methods of production; and be a resource and innovation partner for food and beverage companies.
• PureCircle stevia flavor modifiers work in synergy with sweeteners to improve the taste, mouthfeel and calorie profile, and enhance the cost effectiveness, of beverage and food products.
• Founded in 2002, PureCircle is continually investing in breakthrough research and development and it has been granted 200 stevia-related patents with more than 250 applied for patents pending.
• PureCircle has offices around the world with the global headquarters in Chicago, Illinois.
• To meet growing demand for stevia sweeteners, PureCircle is rapidly ramping up its supply capability. It completed expansion of its Malaysian stevia extract facility in March 2017, increasing its capacity to rapidly supply the newer and great-tasting specialty stevia sweeteners and helping provide ever-increasing value to its customers.
• PureCircle’s shares are listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange.
• For more information, visit: www.purecircle.com

About stevia

• Given the growing global concerns about obesity and diabetes, beverage and food companies are working responsibly to reduce sugar and calories in their products, responding to both consumers and health and wellness advocates. Sweeteners from the stevia plant offer sugar-like taste and are becoming an increasingly important tool for these companies.
• Like sugar, stevia sweeteners are from plants. But unlike sugar, they enable low-calorie and zero-calorie formulations of beverages and foods.
• Stevia leaf extract is a natural-based, zero calorie, high-intensity sweetener used by global food and beverage companies as a great-tasting zero-calorie alternative to sugar and artificial sweeteners.
• Stevia is a naturally sweet plant native to South America; today, it is grown around the world, notably in Kenya, China and the US.
• The sweet-tasting parts of the stevia leaf are up to 350 times sweeter than sugar: stevia’s high-intensity sweetness means it requires far less water and land than sugar.
• Research has shown that the molecules of the stevia leaf are present and unchanged in the dried stevia leaf, through the commercial extraction and purification process, and in the final stevia leaf extract product. All major global regulatory organisations, across 65 countries, have approved the use of high-purity stevia leaf extracts in food and beverages.
• For more information on the science of stevia, please visit https://www.purecirclesteviainstitute.com/

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/382f27ae-0817-44db-a448-2d41f3645f65