Sweet Green Fields granted US patent for stevia extraction

Rebecca Prescott1 Feb 2012

Sweet Green Fields (SGF), a US-based global producer of high purity stevia extracts, has been granted a US patent covering the company's highly efficient method for extracting Rebaudioside-A (RA).

SGF's proprietary extraction method is 33% to 50% faster than the industry's conventional methods, resulting in a much more efficient and cost effective process.

Known as the Fast Precipitation Process (FPP), the extraction procedure draws RA out of a mid grade stevia extract and turns it into a highly purified RA powder of 95% purity grade and higher. Another key differentiator of SGF's FPP is that it is all natural, relying on a water and food grade ethanol for the extraction, as opposed to methanol or wood alcohol.

Dr Mel Jackson, SGF's vice president of science and the creator of the patented process, said: "This achievement is the culmination of more than a decade of extensive stevia research by SGF, and to our knowledge, it's the first one ever granted in the USs on a process for extracting high purity RA. This patent is significant because prior to this, the stevia industry's published methods have long relied on methanol as part of the extraction process, and these methods were time consuming and costly."

Jackson began working on the extraction method in 2001 when there were no commercial all natural methods to produce pure RA, and the patent pre-dates all other pending patent applications pertaining to efficiently producing high purity RA. Thus far, the patent has already withstood the challenge of other claims, as well as significant related art.

Source: Sweet Green Fields