EUROPE – Filling the gap in understanding the long-term benefits and potential risks involved in switching over to sweeteners and sweetness enhancers in the context of sustainability, a group of international researchers have unmasked that stevia grown in Europe produces just 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with sugar production.
The research was undertaken as part of SWEET, a European Commission Horizon 2020-funded project supported by pan-European research, consumer, and industry partners.
The five-year project aims to develop and review evidence on long-term benefits and potential risks involved in switching over to sweeteners and sweetness enhancers in the context of public health and safety, obesity, and sustainability.
Led by the University of Surrey’s Centre for Environment and Sustainability, the researchers conducted a life cycle assessment of (LCA) for the European production of the popular sweetener stevia that has been titled ‘The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment’.
The study focuses on the production of rebaudioside A 60%, 95% pure (RA60) steviol glycoside mix from Stevia rebaudiana leaf (otherwise known as candy leaf, sweet leaf, or sugar leaf) grown in Europe.
The researchers based their findings on global warming potential, freshwater eutrophication (accumulation of nutrients in freshwater sources), water consumption, and land use.
They compared the environmental impact of RA60 to that of sugar (sucrose) derived from both cane and beets–an ingredient linked to a high environmental footprint by analyzing both production mass and sweetness equivalence. The sweetness equivalence of RA60 is typically 200 to 300 times that of sugar.
According to AI-powdered analytics provider Spoonshot, both sugarcane and sugarbeet are water- and land-intensive crops.
Sugarcane is the most produced food crop in the world. Over the last decade, the yielding has increased by 15%.
The clearing of land for increased sugar production has raised alarm as it takes its toll on biodiversity, in addition to input from fertilizers and pesticides. These chemicals are thought to have negative implications for land, groundwater, and drinking water supplies.
“The long and short of this is that sugar crops are increasingly becoming unviable in an era when environmental and climate issues are at the forefront of everyone’s mind,” Spoonshot highlighted in the report.
During the research, the team found that the first LCA of steviol glycoside mix RA60 production from a leaf in Europe caused less environmental impact across a wide range of markers when compared to sugar.
The primary source of impact was the field production of stevia leaves, with the second most important coming from the extraction of the RA60. “Leaf processing and seedling propagation were minor contributors to life cycle impact,” explained the researchers.
Looking at it broadly, stevia offers an opportunity to reduce land use or water consumption compared to the same level of sweetness as sugar.
Additionally, the global warming potential of RA60 was found to be 20.25kg CO2e/kg on a mass basis and 0.081kg/CO2e/kg on a sweetness equivalence basis.
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