What is Stevia?

Stevia is perhaps unique among food ingredients because it's most valued for what it doesn't do. It doesn't add calories. Unlike other sugar substitutes, stevia is derived from a plant. There is some question as to its effectiveness as a weight loss aid or as a helpful diet measure for diabetics. 

The stevia plant is part of the Asteraceae family, related to the daisy and ragweed. Several stevia species called candyleaf are native to New Mexico, Arizona and Texas. But the prized species, Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni), grows in Paraguay and Brazil, where people have used leaves from the stevia bush to sweeten food for hundreds of years.

Is Stevia Safe?

Stevia-based sweeteners use purified extracts from the leaves of the stevia plant, called steviol glycosides.

The plant extract – which is 200 to 300 times sweeter than sugar and is also calorie-free – has been used as a sweetener for many years in Asia and South America.

When used as a table-top sweetener, steviol glycosides are often mixed with other artificial sweeteners for texture and to mask their sometimes bitter aftertaste.

Steviol glycosides are approved for use in sugar-free soft drinks, hot beverages, jams, flavoured milk and other dairy products, cakes, desserts and alcohol, among other things.

When consumed, steviol glycosides are broken down into steviol, which is absorbed by the body. The body does not store steviol glycosides and they are rapidly eliminated in poo and wee.

Steviol glycosides were approved by the EU in 2010 after the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) carried out a comprehensive analysis of all the available evidence and concluded they were safe for human consumption.

Extensive research has been done on steviol glycosides, involving both humans and animals. After analysing all the available evidence, the EFSA's reviewing panel concluded that steviol glycosides are not carcinogenic or toxic and do not pose a risk to pregnancy or children.