Artificial Sweeteners Market to Change (Look at the retail sales of NutraSweet and Equal at the bottom as it keeps going down). James Turner, Atty, and Citizens for Health have already petitioned for the ban of Splenda which does have to be removed f

[Guest guest]

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http://www.icis.com/Articles/2009/05/25/9217338/artificial-sweeteners-market-to-\

change.html

 

 

 

 

 

Artificial sweeteners market to change

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sweet nothings

 

19 May 2009 00:00 [source: ICB]

 

Lawsuits and new products are indicators that the

tight-knit, closed-lipped sugar-free/low

calorie/artificial sweetener industry will be in for a spell of turmoil

 

THE INDUSTRY prefers terms such as " sugar

substitutes " or " low-calorie sweeteners, " but the

product colloquially referred to as artificial

sweeteners, and officially known as non-nutritive

high-intensity sweeteners, are currently used by

more than half of the people in the US.

 

In 1991, about 101m Americans used low-calorie,

sugar-free foods and beverages. By 2001, that had

increased to 163m, and by 2007 194m, according to

US-based market research firm

<http://www.packagedfacts.com/>Packaged Facts

(PF), which also notes that about one-third of US

adults are on a weight-loss diet.

 

Weight-loss efforts around the world pushed the

global artificial sweeteners market to $3.1bn

(€2.3bn), and PF predicts that the global market will grow to $3.2bn by 2012.

 

In October 2008, PF released its study

<http://www.packagedfacts.com/catalog/search.asp?query=sweeteners> " Trends

in the US Market for Sugar, Sugar Substitutes and Sweeteners " .

 

For almost a decade, the sugar-substitute market

was considered in the thralls of choices between

the " pink, blue or yellow package. " That is,

<http://www.sweetnlow.com/>Sweet'N Low

(saccharin; introduced commercially in 1957),

<http://www.equal.com/>Equal (aspartame) or

<http://www.splenda.com/index.jhtml>Splenda.

 

Aspartame is also the main ingredient in

<http://www.nutrasweet.com/>NutraSweet, and was

introduced in tabletop, or package form, in 1981,

and then to carbonated beverages in 1983.

 

The last major shift in the industry was the

introduction of Splenda. Approved by the US

<http://www.fda.gov/>Food and Drug Administration

(FDA) in 1999. Splenda is sucralose, developed

jointly by US-based

<http://www.viactiv.com/aboutus/index.jhtml?id=viactiv/aboutus/mcneil.inc>McNeil

Nutritionals and UK-based

<http://www.tateandlyle.com/TateAndLyle/default.htm>Tate

& Lyle (T & L). Sucralose was discovered by T & L

researchers in 1976, and is now used in roughly 4,000 products.

 

Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar,

compared with saccharin's 300 and aspartame's 200 times sweetness.

 

Splenda reportedly accounts for about a quarter

of T & L's profits. McNeil Nutritionals is a

subsidiary of US-based pharmaceutical and

consumer products firm Johnson & Johnson.

 

Five artificial sweeteners are approved by the

FDA. In addition to saccharin, sucralose and

aspartame, there is acesulfame potassium, also

called Ace-K and marketed as Sunett and Sweet One, and neotame.

 

According to US-based market intelligence

provider <http://us.infores.com/>Information

Resources Inc. (IRI), for the 52 weeks ended

March 22, 2009, US sales of sugar substitutes

were roughly $372m, with sales of Splenda sugar

substitutes at about $217m. Sweet'N Low and

Equal's sales were $48m and $37m, respectively.

 

" Patents for products and processes usually

control competition for a limited number of years

following introduction and approval of new

sweeteners, " says Elaine Lipson, author of the

Packaged Facts report. " Market forces include the

shifting costs of competing sweeteners, the

introduction of new sweeteners, emerging

information about health concerns such as

diabetes and obesity, and shifting consumer

preferences and perceptions of safety. "

 

In addition to taste and caloric count, current

market drivers, notes Lipson, include ingredient

awareness and whether the product can be considered organic.

 

The percentage of US households identifying

themselves as users of sugar

substitutes/artificial sweeteners has varied

little since 2004. In spring 2004, 42.8% of those

surveyed identified themselves as users of sugar

substitutes/artificial sweeteners. That

percentage increased to 46.6% by spring 2007, but

as of winter 2008, was holding at 45.8%.

 

BITTER SWEET

 

Although " sucralose/Splenda continues to own a

majority of the artificial sweetener market, "

says Lipson, it may be losing ground. In 2004,

415 new products were introduced using sucralose

in food, beverage or personal care. For the first

nine months of 2008, only 165 new sucralose products were introduced.

 

Troubles began in

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2007/jan/24/10/print>late

2006, with poor sales, the company said, because

Splenda tasted too much like sugar and therefore

confused consumers who associate an " off " taste

with non-sugar sweeteners. At the time, Diet 7

Up, the General Mills' breakfast cereals Trix and

Coco Puffs, and a specially branded variety of Diet Coke all stopped using it.

 

In early 2007, US-based sweetener company

<http://www.merisant.com/>Merisant, the maker of

Equal, started a lawsuit against Splenda

co-creator McNeil Nutritionals regarding

advertising that stated Splenda was " made from sugar " and " natural " .

 

Merisant argued that because sucralose is

synthetically made by processing sugar with

chlorine, Splenda cannot use those terms in its

advertising. The case was later

<http://www.icis.com/Articles/2007/06/01/4502929/IN-BRIEF-Consumer-specialties.h\

tml>settled

out of court, with McNeil stating that Splenda is not sugar.

 

In September 2008, T & L's lawsuit against Chinese

manufacturers of sucralose was

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/sep/24/tateandlyle.usa>thrown

out of court, enabling Guangdong Food Industry

Institute/L & P Food Ingredient Company to

distribute their sugar substitutes in North America.

 

Then in April, the US International Trade

Commission upheld an earlier ruling that found

that Heartland Sweeteners did not infringe on

T & L's sucralose patents. Heart-land produces the

<http://www.nevella.com/>Nevella sweetener, and

with Ganeden Biotech has developed a probiotic

sweetener, Nevella with Probiotics, which is

being promoted as boosting the immune system and promoting digestive health.

 

HERE COMES STEVIA

 

Also in April, US-based beverage giants

<http://www.pepsico.com/>PepsiCo and

<http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/>Coca-Cola

indicated they were

<http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/08/tate-lyle-sucralose-markets-equity-competition\

..html>looking

to abandon

<http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/08/tate-lyle-sucralose-markets-equity-competition\

..html>Splenda

for a sweetener they have more invested in:

rebaudiosides A (Reb-A), developed from stevia.

 

Stevia is the name of the plant, and stevioside

is the sweetener, but stevia has come to refer to

the sweetener as well. The stevia plant also

contains the sweeteners Reb-A, B, C, D and E;

dulcoside A; and steviolbioside. Stevia is

approximately 200 times as sweet as sugar.

 

" We're testing stevia and Reb-A in a variety of

products, but it absolutely comes down to taste, "

said Joe Tripodi, chief marketing officer for Coca-Cola, .

 

Like saccharine and every other processed

sweetener since, though, there are varying and

conflicting reports as to the health benefits of

stevia, but it has been popular in Japan (where

it has been tested rigorously) since the 1970s.

The

<http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~rdb/opa-g253.html>FDA

approved Reb-A as a general-purpose sweetener in December 2008.

 

It was in 2005 that Coca-Cola and US-based

agriculture and food giant

<http://www.cargill.com/>Cargill began work on a

derivative of stevia. The companies are now

marketing their stevia sweetener as

<http://www.truvia.com/>Truvia. Coca-Cola is

initially using Truvia in two of its Odwalla

juice drinks and in the new Sprite Green.

 

PepsiCo's stevia sweetener is being marketed as

<http://www.purevia.com/>PureVia, and like

Truvia, the marketing is hyping it as being

natural. " This is a potential game-changer among

zero-calorie sweeteners, " said Lou Imbrogno,

PepsiCo's senior vice president of Pepsi

Worldwide Technical Operations, at a press

conference in July 2008. PepsiCo's partner in

PureVia is the

<http://www.wholeearthsweetener.com/>Whole Earth

Sweetener Company (WES), a subsidiary of Merisant.

 

PepsiCo is using stevia in its Sobe Lifewater

drinks and in a new line of Tropicana orange juice, Trop50.

 

" Stevia is a wild card in the sweetener

marketplace, " says Lipson, because it dovetails

perfectly with the industry's search for natural

low- or no-calorie sweeteners that are publicly

regarded as " safer " than those that are made via

complicated chemical processes:

 

" After the stevia leaves are milled, a freshwater

brewing method is used to unlock the natural

sweeteners, " said Sergio Machado, director of

research and development for WES, in March at a

press conference. " This extract is then purified

further until a very high purity Reb-A is obtained. "

 

Lipson notes: " Stevia products are poised to make a splash in the market. "

 

Even McNeil Nutritionals is getting in on the

act. In March, the codeveloper of Splenda has

launched Sun Crystals All-Natural Sweetener,

which combines stevia with pure cane sugar. The

company is making sure to disseminate information

about the product's natural status.

 

In January, NutraSweet said it was not worried

about stevia. At the time, Bill DeFer,

NutraSweet's president, said: " We're not

expecting a lot of impact on our business. The

global demand for aspartame continues to increase. "

 

Meanwhile, the company is working on its own

<http://www.foodproductdesign.com/hotnews/nutrasweet-developing-stevia-product.h\

tml>NutraSweet

Natural<http://www.foodproductdesign.com/hotnews/nutrasweet-developing-stevia-pr\

oduct.html>

with stevia.

 

US RETAIL SALES OF ARTIFICIAL SWEETENERS/SUGAR SUBSTITUTES, 2003-2007, $/M

Category 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2003–2007 change

All sugar substitutes 316.20 353.7 357.2 366.5 371.4 17.50%

Splenda (sucralose) 119.4 178.1 198.6 218.6 226.7 89.80%

Equal (aspartame) 80.1 67.6 57.8 51 46 -42.60%

Sweet'N Low (saccharin) 56.1 53.2 50.3 49.5 49 -12.60%

NutraSweet (aspartame) 7.6 6.6 4.9 3.6 1.5 -93.40%

Sweetleaf Stevia (stevia) 0.8 1.1 1.8 2.4 3.1 287.50%

SOURCE: PACKAGED FACTS/IRI

 

<http://www.icis.com/blogs/green-chemicals/>Read

Doris de Guzman's Green Chemicals blog

 

By: <icisnews.americasIvan Lerner

+1 713 525 2653

 

__

 

More information on aspartame and Splenda,

www.mpwhi.com, www.dorway.com and www.wnho.net,

Aspartame Toxicity Center, www.holisticmed.com/aspartame

 

Dr. Betty Martini, D.Hum, Founder

Mission Possible International

9270 River Club Parkway

Duluth, Georgia 30097

770 242-2599

 

Splenda: http://www.wnho.net/splenda_chlorocarbon.htm

Aspartame Disease: An Ignored Epidemic,

www.sunsentpress.com H. J. Roberts, M.D.

Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills by neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock, M.D.

Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World, www.soundandfury.tv Aspartame Documentary

Safe Sweetener, Just Like Sugar, www.justlikesugarinc.com