Misleading product labelling

Labelled STEVIA in huge letters on the ‘front’ with a mention of 0.18% Stevia on the ‘back’. Surely this is breaking some rule?

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Probably not.

The problem with using stevia as a sugar replacement is that it is much sweeter than sucrose. If it was pure stevia powder (you can buy it) you would be measuring out tiny amounts to replace a teaspoon of sugar in your tea, this is not how we do things and most people would not be capable of doing it at all.

The solution is to pack out the stevia with some bulk ingredient that makes the result about as sweet per volume as sucrose. Erythritol fills the bill, it is sweet, though not as sweet as sucrose, and contains almost no food value. Whether erythritol successfully takes the role of sucrose in baking, where its other properties besides sweetness contribute to texture, I leave for someone else.

The product is branded as “stevia” because that name is associated with ‘natural’ sweetening (whatever that means) and erythritol is not. The silly part is that stevia is just as processed, or just as natural, as sucrose.

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Perhaps the saving grace for the manufacturer is that the product has only two ingredients and both are clearly disclosed on the front of the packaging.

Yes, for the point size used, 0.18% may be some sort of record. :rofl:

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The front label states in big letter ‘Stevia’ and in smaller letters ‘Erythritol’.
The back label says that the sweeteners are Erythritol (a sugar alcohol) and Steviol glycosides (made from the Stevia plant).
I don’t think it’s misleading as it does disclose both sweeteners, but a hurried look at the front of the label which has Stevia in big letters might give the wrong impression.
Unfortunately this happens with labels a lot, and we do need to take our time to read labels closely, but most of us are short of time :upside_down_face:

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It’s a great observation, and not unique.
Should a famous cola especially the zero sugar version be labelled water? It’s not pure water, but at 99% water close enough given the fraction that is not.

The true amount that is these days pure ‘coke’ not measurable! :joy: