In the past stevia has been considered as a kind of simple sweetener which can substitute sugar proportionally in an easy way. This opinion was misleading to producers and consumers. In addition, this is nowadays a well recognized explanation why until recently stevia has not been accepted well by the food industry in US.

Unlike other sweeteners, the performance of stevia products ( taste and sweetness) is substantially dependent from other ingredients in the final applications. Therefore, stevia should not be defined as a simple natural sweetener, but the development of stevia containing products should be considered more as an art.

Purchase of stevia products is surely not enough to satisfy customers’ demand which is demonstrated by a series of unsuccessful product launches. Pre-sales engineering is needed to consult customers on how to use individual stevia products and to develop stevia-based recipes for final products directly.