Coca-Cola and Cargill will move to introduce their stevia sweetner product in countries where the ingredient is already approved, the firms have confirmed.

This is big news! I always figured it was just a matter of time before stevia would make its way to the mainstream United States.

Stevia is a natural herb found in Paraguay that has an incredibly sweet taste, but zero calories and carbs. I’ve been using it for years adding it to my coffee, oatmeal and green tea. I’ll warn you though, it has a different sweet taste . . . kinda like licorice. Some people love it, some hate it.

Anyway, all of the big sugar manufacturers and artificial sweetner companies (Equal, Splenda, etc.) have been placing incredible political pressures with the FDA to slow the introduction of stevia in the United States. Obviously, this would seriously cut their market shares. That’s why you don’t hear about it as much in the mainstream.

I always thought it would take some real political power to get stevia pushed through the FDA and marketing muscle to introduce it to America. Well, now this is becoming reality with 2 huge multi-national corporations taking serious interest and investment in Stevia . . . Coca-Cola and Cargill.

“We will sell in the markets where regulatory approval already exists and we’ll work through the paths for regulatory approval in other countries around the world, including the US,” Cargill spokesperson Ann Tucker told FoodNavigator-USA.com. The big question still remains how fast Coca-Cola can make this happen?

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