Cargill moving forward with natural sweetener launch

NEW YORK Cargill yesterday announced that it will begin its roll-out of Truvia, the zero-calorie, natural sweetener derived from the stevia plant. The company said that it will have Truvia on retailers’ shelves across the nation by this fall.

Truvia is a natural sweetening additive created from leaves of the stevia shrub, an herb that is native to Paraguay. Cargill and Coca-Cola have plans to use Truvia as a sweetener in foods and beverages from breakfast cereal, to soft drinks, yogurts and snack bars, company spokespersons said. Truvia is slated to bring heavy competition against other calorie-free sweeteners, such as Equal, Splenda and Sweet ‘N Low.

Truvia will be available at Manhattan chain D’Agostino first, and will then extend out to other nationwide grocers and big box retailers, Cargill’s Truvia vice president and business director, Steve Snyder, said.

Single-serving, green-and-white Truvia packets will be available in 40-count boxes with a suggested retail price of $3.99.