Stevia product appears in mainstream grocer aisles

Stevia, derived from the South American plant stevia rebaudiana, is said to have up to 300 times the sweetness of sugar. As a sweetener, stevia's taste has a slower onset and longer duration than that of sugar, although some of its extracts may have a bitter or liquorice-like aftertaste at high concentrations.

It has made it onto the sweetener aisle shelves of Kroger, Schnucks, Brookshire and Albertsons, sitting right next to the top three artificial sweetener products in the world.

There have been rumors that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) could be petitioned to approve stevia as a food additive.

Public awareness of the ingredient shot up earlier this month, after the Wall Street Journal revealed that big players Coca-Cola and Cargill were teaming up to market a stevia sweetener product. Coca-Cola has filed 24 patent applications for the ingredient in the US.

According to the article, the two firms are gathering data on the ingredient in order to apply for FDA approval.