Sustainable is Good

Celestial Seasonings Changes Packaging Over Stevia Content

Celestial Seasonings has agreed to change the packaging of its Zingers to Go flavored iced tea mix to indicate it is an herbal supplement rather than a food.

The packaging change is as a result of an ongoing issue between the company and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which will not allow the use of the sweetener Stevia as a food additive.  The FDA specifically targeted Celestial Seasonings Tangerine Orange Wave Herbal Tea, but other flavors in the line contain Stevia.

The US government only allows Stevia to be used as an herbal supplement. 

According to published reports, Celestial Seasonings will change its packaging to "more prominently" reflect the point the product is an herbal supplement. 

The company has always maintained its Zingers to Go were an herbal supplement but the FDA wanted the packaging changed to reflect this point more clearly.

Stevia is a natural sweetener that is much sweeter than sugar.  Its status in the US has been a point of controversy for over a decade.

Earlier this year Sustainable is Good reported on the announcement that Coca-Cola and agricultural giant Cargill were secretly working on a new natural sweetener made from Stevia.  The two companies had worked behind closed doors for over five years on the project and hope to introduce the new sweetener in beverages and foods in the near future

Coca-Cola and Cargill Partner on Ultra Secret Sweetener

Coca-Cola filed 24 U.S. patent applications on May 24, 2007, covering the use of stevia in combination with a range of natural compounds (i.e., vitamins, minerals, glucosamine), in different delivery formats (i.e., condiments, beverages) and for several health conditions (i.e., weight management, inflammation).

The patent applications are the result of an ultra secret working group between $24 Billion soft drink giant Coca-Cola and food giant Cargill that began to filter out to the public earlier this month.  The working group was part of a joint effort by the companies to develop the "ultimate" sweetener, one they could even call "natural" unlike Splenda or Nutra-Sweet. 

The result is a product derived from Stevia tentatively named rebiana.  In addition to the 24 U.S. patent applications, Coca-Cola will have exclusive worldwide rights to the sweetener for its beverage products.  Cargill will have rights to use the "natural" sweetener in its food products.

"This has been a closely held secret for a while," Zanna McFerson, business director for Cargill Sweetness Solutions told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.  The Wall Street Journal reported the project began about five years ago when Cargill assigned 40 employees to scour the globe for the source of the "dream sweetener," said Marcelo Montero, president of Cargill Sweetness Solutions.

The companies plan on launching products containing the new sweetener as early as next year in countries that allow Stevia for food use including China, Japan and Brazil.  Simultaneously under the terms of the partnership Cargill is handling product development and the regulatory approval process for the sweetener here in the U.S.

In March we reported on another sweetener, Splenda and strange marketing PR campaign by its two owners, Johnson & Johnson and Tate & Lyle to buy over two hundred negative Internet domain names related to Splenda. 

Stevia

Stevia A Natural Alternative to Sugar

BY RIDER THOMPSON

Diabetics have known about Stevia for years and have sworn by it. Stevia is a small perennial plant native to Central and South America that is sweet, much sweeter than sugar (some extracts are up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar) yet it has little or no effect on blood glucose, therefore it has drawn a lot of attention as a natural sweetener for diabetics and others on carbohydrate sensitive diets whose other alternative sweeteners are Splenda or Nutrasweet – both chemical sweeteners. Stevia has also shown promising signs in medical research for treating obesity and high blood pressure.