Kamuela, Hawaii, Aug 7 - Natural, no-calorie sweeteners should take off in the U.S. market as health-conscious consumers shun sugars seen piling on the pounds, industry experts said.
Brian O'Malley, president and chief executive of Domino Foods Inc, said Wednesday at the annual meeting of the American Sugar Alliance there is a perception that "artificial sweeteners are not helping consumers lose weight."
For sweeteners, "healthcare (has) emerged as the new retail background," he said.
The natural food market is expanding at an average rate of 15 to 20 percent annually, so there is going to be a huge advantage for sweeteners that will not add pounds and are naturally produced.
"There's a big push to come up with more natural sweeteners," said Scott Wulff, sourcing director for dairy and sweeteners for General Mills in Minnesota.
Both were cautious in assessing the retail impact of Cargill's new natural, no-calorie sweetener Truvia, which is made from certain compounds in the leaves of stevia, a shrub native to Paraguay.
PepsiCo announced at the end of last month it will launch a new line of SoBe Life drinks with a zero-calorie sweetener also derived from stevia.
O'Malley conceded that such a sweetener could potentially provide stiff competition to sweeteners like Sweet 'N Low, Equal and Splenda.
But he said Truvia is not yet approved in the United States and Pepsi has said it will launch first in Latin America.
"We have to wait for our country's regulatory body to say it's safe," said O'Malley.
Stevia is a food additive used in countries like Japan, Brazil and China. It is not used in the U.S. along with the European Union.
But it is used as a dietary supplement here as that category is not subject to the same regulations by the government.