Awareness of stevia has grown rapidly alongside a positive perception in the marketplace, according to findings from a new consumer study from PureCircle Insights Group. The study also identifies a stark contrast between stevia development and other high intensity sweeteners. As of May 2011, stevia awareness reached 62%, from 46% just a year earlier in the general U.S. population. According to the study, stevia has now surpassed sucralose, which had 42% recognition, since its launch in 1998. The study, based on a survey of consumers across the U.S. in May 2011, covered such areas as awareness, perception and purchase interest of branded and unbranded sweeteners in the U.S. market, including interest in their use across a broad set of food and beverage categories.

“We had a hypothesis in early 2009 that the stevia market needed to be looked at very differently from earlier high intensity sweeteners,” said Jason Hecker, vice president of global marketing and innovation, PureCircle. “Traditionally, branded sweeteners have had much greater awareness and positive impression than their unbranded counterparts. Overall, the trends with stevia are the reverse. The data indicates that consumers find the unbranded message, in fact, to be the most natural. Perhaps this shouldn’t be completely surprising as the commonly used term for the sweetener is also the name of the plant.”