Point Roberts, WA - February 14, 2013 (Investorideas.com Newswire) Investorideas.com staff: Investorideas.com, an investor research portal specializing in sector research for independent investors issues a snapshot for the stevia market and related stocks. Just a day ahead of Valentine’s Day; a day of celebration where sugar is a key ingredient, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) issued a press release that it has filed a 54-page regulatory petition detailing the substantial scientific evidence that added sugars, especially in drinks, causes weight gain, obesity, and chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and gout.

According to their release, "soda and other sugar drinks are the single biggest source of calories in the American diet. Americans, on average, consume between 18 and 23 teaspoons--about 300 to 400 calories worth--of added sugars per day."As sugar is targeted, natural sweeteners such as stevia are positioned to be major winners in the battle against obesity.

The writing is on the wall for beverage companies; the industry must change. "As currently formulated; Coke, Pepsi, and other sugar-based drinks are unsafe for regular human consumption," said CSPI executive director Michael F. Jacobson.

Analyst Lauren Bandy of Euromonitor commented, " There have been a number of significant soft drink launches for stevia recently, including the reformulation of Sprite in Ireland (following France), Trop50, SoBe and Vitamin Water in the UK (following the US) for example. "

The Coca-Cola Company ( NYSE:KO ) in its recent 10K filing said it is increasing the use of natural sweeteners such as Stevia with Sprite and vitaminwater. Coke also recently launched a major ad campaign in an attempt to change consumer's perception of its role in obesity.

PepsiCo ( NYSE:PEP ) has also introduced stevia into is product line as part of its overall rebranding and healthy image strategy to fight against the eight year decline the soda industry has realized .

Major global stevia suppliers including Sunwin Stevia International, Inc. ( OTCQB: SUWN ) and PureCircle ( LSE: PURE.L ) are poised to capitalize on the growing trend to replace sugar in the beverage and food markets.

WILD Flavors GmbH based in Zug Switzerland, one of the world's leading privately-owned manufacturers of natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry, notes, "as other ingredient companies and consumer packaged goods firms are simply aligning supply streams of stevia, WILD Flavors has taken a bigger and bolder step by significantly investing in Sunwin Stevia International Inc. ( OTCQB: SUWN ), one of the top worldwide suppliers of stevia."

New brands using stevia are also being introduced in the alcoholic beverage sector.

Heineken's ( HEIA.AS ) Finnish business Hartwall just launched a low alcohol beverage sweetened with steviol glycosides and sugar, Cool Grape Cranberry long drink, containing 30% less calories.

Hartwall is a strong advocate of stevia in its overall product line.

According to Hartwall "Beverages sweetened with steviol glycosides have been the most important launch for Hartwall Jaffa in the 21st century this far. All in all, this has been the most radical innovation in the beverage industry since light drinks. Both positive consumer feedback and sales results indicate that this is an emerging category that combines two important criteria - naturalness and lightness. We will invest even more strongly in the stevia category in 2013," says Marketing Director Ann-Mari Hämäläinen.

Analyst Lauren Bandy of Euromonitor told Investorideas.com, " I don't think that it's the first alcoholic beverage launched in the EU - I know some craft beer companies may have experimented with using stevia. For example Stepa in Belgium launched a beer containing stevia ( http://www.stepa.be/ ). We are yet to research the use of stevia in alcoholic drinks as it is still a relatively niche category."

As new brands are introduced in both the non- alcoholic and alcoholic beverage markets, the future for stevia suppliers is looking very "sweet".

Investors can research stevia stocks and beverage stocks at Investorideas.com stock directories.

Sunwin Stevia International, Inc. ( OTCQB: SUWN ). Sunwin Stevia International, Inc. (OTCQB: SUWN) engages in the areas of zero calorie, all natural sweeteners (Sunwin Stevia™ Extracts). As an industry leader in agricultural processing, Sunwin Stevia has built an integrated global firm with the sourcing and production capabilities to meet the needs of consumers throughout the world. For more info about Sunwin Stevia, please visit http://www.sunwininternational.com

Article source: https://www.cspinet.org/new/201302131.html

FDA petition: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/sugar_petition_2-12-13_final.pdf

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