The Indian government has yet to approve stevia sugar as a food additive even though many countries in the western world including the US has allowed its use in food and beverages.
Scientists at the Institute of Himalayan Bio-resource Technology(IHBT), a branch of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, at Palampur in Kangra district have successfully used stevia sugar as a food additive.
They wonder why it isn’t being used as an additive in India even though the Food and Drug Administration(FDA) of the US has already approved its use in food items. Stevia is used only as a herbal product in India.
“We have successfully used stevia sugar for preparing sweets, bakery products and ice creams,” said PS Ahuja, director, of the IHBT. Stevia sugar, a South American herb in origin is said to be at least 40 times sweeter than conventional sugar and does not raise the blood sugar level.
“The processing technology has been patented by us. We have already transferred the technology to three or four private companies,” Ahuja said.
The institute scientists have also extracted stevioside from the leaves of the stevia plant, the first zero calorie plant based sweetener, the institute claims.
The only difference between sugar extracted from sugarcane and stevioside is that stevioside isn’t sticky and so cannot be used to cook certain Indian sweets where traditional sugar can bind and paste the ingredients well.
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