Stevia has been used as sweetener for hundreds of years, beginning when people in Paraguay used stevia leaves to sweeten their drinks and flavor their food. Today, the stevia industry is partly driven by the regulations, expanding the categories of the applications, setting criteria to make it simple to use.
Steviol glycosides has been approved in more than 100 countries around the world
After being separated from the plant by two french scientists in 1931, steviol glycosides has gradually been approved by the regulatory supervision agencies in many countries. Now there are over 100 countries in the world that allow steviol glycosides application.
1970s~80s
Japan started to use stevia extracts as food and beverage sweetener. After that Korea, China, Malaysia and some latin American counrtries also followed.
2008
High purity steviol glycosides Reb A gained the GRAS( Generally recognized as safe) Certificate . In the same year, the document signed by the European Union “ Regulation (EC) N°1334/2008 ” approved that the glycosylated steviol glycosides can be used as additives in food flavoring substances.
2010
JECFA points that 9 types of steviol glycosides(purity≥95%) can be used in food and beverages and regulates the acceptable daily intake(ADI) to be 0~4mg/kg/day steviol equivalence(high purity stevia extracts with steviol glycosides content> 95％)
2011
Codex Alimentarius Commission, CODEX allowed steviol glycosides to be used as food additives and published the application standard; European Food Safety Authority reviews its safety and approves the use of steviol glycosides as a sweetener in the European Union.
2016
Canadian government approved the application of steviol glycosides as sweetener in food; Food Council of the Ministry of Health of Canada evaluated the safety of steviol glycosides and didn’t find any safety-related harzards. In 2017 the council approved the application of steviol glycosides in foods. The National Health Commission of the People’s Republic of China approved that glycosylated steviol glycosides can be used as food additives in food flavoring substances.
2017
Many organizations in the world introduce new laws and regulations regarding stevia. JECFA approved the application of all the steviol glycosides product specifications, including all the steviol glycosides compounds. The Reb A, Reb D and Reb M extracted from GL#9 and GL#10 stevia have been approved in over 100 nations.The FEMA GRAS No.28 document approved in 2017 approved that glycosylated steviol glycosides can be used as food additives in food flavoring substances.
June 30th, 2022
The Chinese national food safety standard GB1886.355-2022 approved another 4 new steviol glycosides specifications,Reb E, Reb M, Reb N, Reb O. Until now, there are totally 13 steviol glycosides approved by the standard.