Cargill sees new sweetener on market in '08

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Agribusiness and commodity trading group Cargill Inc said on Thursday that it expects its no-calorie sweetener made from a South American shrub to be on the U.S. market by the end of the year.

In an interview, Marcelo Montero, president of Cargill's Health and Nutrition unit, said the product, called rebiana, will be available this year as a tabletop sweetener.

Rebiana, which will be sold under the name Truvia, is made from the leaves of a shrub called stevia that is native to Paraguay and will provide a natural alternative to chemical sweeteners including Sweet'N Low and Equal.

Stevia is not approved as a food additive by health regulators in the United States or the European Union, though it can be sold as a dietary supplement. It is approved in a dozen countries, including Japan, China and Brazil.

Privately-held Cargill, which is handling the growing of the plants and the regulatory process, said it has notified the U.S. Food and Drug Association that Truvia is safe, based on scientific studies being published on Thursday in the journal "Food and Chemical Toxicology."

The company said FDA approval typically takes anywhere from two to six months.

Montero said Cargill is working with a number of companies on projects involving the sweetener, but declined to give a timeline for the launch of other rebiana-sweetened food products.

A spokesman for Coca-Cola Co, which co-developed the product with Cargill and has exclusive rights to use it in beverages, also declined to offer a schedule.

"We'll certainly explore the different applications," said Coke spokesman Kelly Brooks.

Most full-calorie soft drinks sold in the United States are sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup, a cheap alternative to cane sugar. But corn syrup has been criticized for contributing to obesity and has soared in price due to climbing demand for ethanol, which is also made from corn.

Lower-calorie sodas are now made with artificial sweeteners such as saccharin, aspartame and sucralose, which are sold under the respective brand names of Sweet'N Low, NutraSweet and Equal, and Splenda, which is made by Tate & Lyle Plc.

Drinks sweetened with rebiana would likely appeal to health-conscious consumers and natural grocers, such as Whole Foods Market Inc, that tend to carry products made from natural ingredients.

One of Cargill's rebiana suppliers, GLG Life Tech Corp, said earlier this month that it started building a 500-metric-ton stevia processing facility in Qingdao, China.

(Editing by Brian Moss)