| 08:15 | Registration and refreshments |
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| 09:00 | Opening remarks from the chair |
| | Prof. Jan Geuns, Founding member of EUSTAS; Head of Lab. Functional Biology, KULeuven |
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| Reviewing the impact of stevia approval on the F&B market and keeping in line with regulation |
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| 09:10 | Panel Discussion:
So far, so good? Evaluating the first months of stevia approval in Europe |
| • | Analysing the range and number of products launched on the market in the first half of 2012 – has it met expectations at this early stage? |
| • | Assessing the positioning of newly-launched stevia products – what’s the extent of natural labelling and have companies leant towards loud or silent reformulation? |
| • | Discussing the development of stevia in Europe - identifying growth areas and comparisons to established markets |
| • | What next? How much can we predict from the first product launches about the success of stevia in Europe? |
| | David Jago, Director of Innovation & Insight, Mintel
Jim May, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Wisdom Natural Brands
Speaker to be confirmed, WILD Flavors |
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| 10:00 | DOUBLE SESSION FOCUS
Understanding the basics of stevia regulation in European F&B: communicating the use of stevia to consumers |
| • | Exploring key requirements and considerations for EU manufacturers |
| • | Highlighting EU specifications and labelling surrounding the use of stevia in products |
| • | Discussing the use of the word ‘natural’ as legislated by European markets in relation to stevia-based products |
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| | Establishing robust testing practices: the Proficiency Testing Programme for steviol glycosides |
| • | Understanding the need for the development of the ISC’s Proficiency Testing Programme |
| • | Understanding the need for the development of the ISC’s Proficiency Testing Programme |
| • | Outlining the plan for the future |
| | Maria Teresa Scardigli, Executive Director, International Stevia Council |
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| 10:35 | Morning refreshments |
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| Technical focus: refining stevia-based products to meet consumer expectations around taste and texture |
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| 11:00 | Taste, taste, taste. Successfully blending stevia to overcome challenges in creating great tasting products |
| • | Discussing stevia’s taste profile, off notes and lingering sweetness and the challenges these pose to the European F&B industry |
| • | Evaluating the blending options available to manufacturers working with stevia and successfully incorporating these into your product reformulation |
| • | Assessing the opportunities provided by legislation of all steviol glycosides in moving away from just Reb-A –evaluating the impact on taste and cost |
| | John Fry, Director, Connect Consulting & Principal Consultant, Cargill Health & Nutrition |
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| 11:30 | Tackling the loss of bulk and the impact on mouth feel of stevia-sugar replacement while maintaining a suitably ‘natural’ product |
| • | Discussing the attributes of sugar that make it so hard to replace with sweeteners, natural or artificial |
| • | Considering the alternatives to sugar that provide suitable bulking properties to match the required mouth feel of your products |
| • | Exploring the options available in developing stevia-based products that use natural bulking agents to achieve the desired organoleptic properties for your product |
| | Maurits Burgering PhD, Senior Scientist & Business Development Manager, TNO |
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| 12:00 | Question & answer session |
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| Exploring the stevia supply chain and its impact on business: from costs to purity |
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| 12:15 | Cost focus: Comparing the cost of stevia versus sugar and other natural sweeteners in the short, medium and long term |
| • | Retrospectively assessing sugar costs and its impact on the price of stevia and leading sweeteners: what’s the best option for your business? |
| • | Forecasting the cost of stevia and other leading sweeteners in the short, medium and long term: will prices drop? |
| • | Highlighting the role of suppliers in reducing the cost of sweeteners and lessons to be learnt from cross commodity analysis |
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| 12:45 | Lunch & networking |
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| 14:00 | Supplier spotlight: Discussing how the supply chain is working to provide consistent supply, quality, purity and lower-cost stevia |
| • | Analysing the development of stevia production and how continued advances will positively impact European manufacturers |
| • | Assessing the ability of suppliers to cope with increasing demand from the expected global stevia boom: is your supply chain stable? |
| • | Establishing the need for an industry standard method for analysing purity levels in steviol glycosides - what is currently available and who is responsible for the development of an industry standard? |
| • | Considering stevia’s key cost drivers and forecasts on costs in the short to medium term – can stevia become a cost-neutral alternative to sugar? |
| | Jason Hecker, VP Global Marketing & Innovation, PureCircle Ltd. |
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| Overcome the technical challenges that stevia presents and harnessing the opportunities of the open market |
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| 14:45 | Preserves & confectionary focus
Developing great tasting fruit preserves and confectionary that successfully overcome the technical challenges posed by stevia |
| • | Understanding the main commercial drivers behind the development of stevia based products from consumer trends to international market opportunities |
| • | Discussing the technical difficulties specific to developing reduced sugar stevia-based confectionary products and how these were overcome |
| • | Achieving the required taste profile for stevia based confectionary and overcoming other organoleptic obstacles faced through the development process |
| | Professor Mohamed Negm, Visiting Researcher, Eco-Process & Agro-Industry Research Team, La Rochelle University |
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| 15:15 | Afternoon refreshments |
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| 15:45 | Case study: Tabletop sweetener
Developing - and selling - great tasting table top sweeteners that successfully overcome challenges posed by stevia |
| • | Exploring the technical difficulties specific to developing reduced sugar/stevia-based tabletop sweeteners and how these can be overcome |
| • | Identifying ways of achieving the required taste profile for stevia-based sweeteners and overcoming other organoleptic obstacles faced through the development process |
| • | Successfully preparing the market for stevia-based tabletop sweeteners: effectively communicating reformulation to appeal to the modern consumer |
| | Jim May, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Wisdom Natural Brands |
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| 16:15 | Case study: Dairy
Exploring the steps to successful reformulation in ice cream to produce great tasting stevia-based products that are accepted by consumers |
| • | Discussing the technical difficulties to overcome when reducing sugar in ice cream, including relative sweetness, freezing point depression factor and bulking |
| • | Characterising taste and texture in some examples of sugar-reduced ice cream sweetened with Stevia |
| • | Exploring marketing data on the use of stevia in ice cream |
| • | Examining examples of how the use of Stevia is communicated on packaging and how this can be achieved successfully |
| | Anne Marstein Andersen, Senior Application Specialist, Ice Cream & Frozen Desserts, Danisco A/S |
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| 16:45 | Closing remarks from chair and end of conference |
