Truvia® rebiana sweetened fruit juices reduce liquid calories and improve market prospects

Americans need to be aware of the amount of calories they consume from beverages.  While most juice drinks supply more nutritional value than full sugar sodas, they often carry high calorie counts per serving.  The amount of sugar in the average school-aged American child’s diet has come under scrutiny lately as many school districts in North America have banned the sale of sodas in schools but have kept juices.  This presents an opportunity for juice manufacturers to create and supply well-rounded, reduced sugar, reduced calorie juice beverages.

In a study from the Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 2009, researchers examined the health effect of different types of beverages. Sugar-sweetened drinks accounted for nearly 40% of the participants’ liquid calories⁽¹⁾. The study found:  

• A reduction in liquid calorie intake impacted weight loss more than solid calories
• Eliminating sugar-sweetened beverages made a significant difference in weight loss

“The juice category is an exciting area for rebiana, with at least nine brands introducing naturally-sweetened, reduced-calorie products in the US and France,” says Melanie Goulson, Applications Manager at Cargill. “Truvia^® rebiana has been applied across the board from mainstream flavors like apple and orange, to multi-fruit blends and even more trendy super fruits like blueberry, pomegranate, cranberry and acai blends.” 

Full-sugar fruit juices commonly contain high calorie and sugar content per 8 fl. oz. serving.  Cargill developed a reduced sugar apple juice drink prototype that combines the goodness of fruit juice, sweetened with Truvia^® rebiana with no added sugar.  

The exact sugar and calorie reduction depends on the percent fruit juice and the fruit variety or blend.  Cargill’s applications team formulates with customers so they can meet specific nutritional and taste targets for practically any kind of juice base.

In-house sensory evaluation work that Cargill’s application team conducted demonstrated that “many of these products have as good and even better hedonics scores than full calorie juice products,” according to Melanie Goulson. 

⁽¹⁾ 2009 Apr 1. Reduction in consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages is associated with weight loss: the PREMIER trial. Chen L. Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.