According to the news of Food Navigator dated 19-Jan-2010, The French government has approved the use of stevia sweetener Reb A in table top sweeteners, and raised the levels at which it can be used in a range of no added sugar food and beverage products.

Last August France became the first country in the EU to approve the use of Reb A with purity of 97 per cent and above in food and beverage products, taking advantage of a 2-year window in advance of the anticipated approval for the whole EU by the European Commission.

The updated approval from the Ministere de l’Economie, de l’Industrie et de l’Emploi, published in France’s Official Journal last Friday, raises the amount that can be used reduced calorie or no added sugar non-alcoholic drinks, confectionery, desserts and other products by around 40 per cent from those originally approved - a change which will give industry considerably more flexibility.

The permission to use Reb A as a table top sweetener opens up another, high potential product area for industry. For this product category no upper limit has been set for dosage, but the government said it must be subject to good manufacturing processes.

Reb A can now be used in beverages at a level of up to 600mg/l, and in most desserts up to 1000mg/kg. In ice cream the limit is 800mg/kg.

In breath-freshening sweets the limit is 10,000mg/kg; in chewing gum 5,500mg/kg; in throat sweets, cocoa or dried fruit based and starch based sweets 2000mg/kg; in other confectionery with no added sugar the limit is 1000mg/kg.