Do we need another sweetener?  Perhaps not, but there is something totally new coming on the market within the next 12-18 months to sprinkle into your tea or stir into your coffee.  It’s an extract called brazzein, from the West African plant Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon.  According to Loren Miles, CEO of Natur Research Ingredients of LA, California, this sweetener, branded with the name Cweet™, is 1000 times sweeter than sugar, but has zero calories, tastes like cane sugar and is also heat stable. 

Evidently, this sweetener has been used for years in West Africa.  The reason it has not come to our shores sooner is problems with production.   Researchers discovered the sweetener in 1985 when they were studying the eating habits of apes.  The berries from the Pentadiplandra brazzeana Baillon and the source of brazzein, were a staple of the apes.  The plant grows in the Congo, Gabon, Nigeria and Cameroon.  The access to the areas may be one of the biggest barriers to obtaining adequate amount of the fruit without disturbing the environment and the wildlife.  Native West Africans of these areas have consumed these berries for years, with no known side effects. 

Cweet™ is touted as safe for people with diabetes and is attempting approval for the GRAS-Generally Recognized As Safe- list before seeking FDA approval.  The GRAS list, unfortunately, contains lists of ingredients or food products that have not undergone extensive testing.  If Cweet™ is all-natural, it may be safer than the currently artificially produced sweeteners, but if you have ever read the list of ingredients on the typical diet soft drink, there is usually more than one sweetener present, so it may still be mixed with some of the more ‘chemical’ sweeteners in the end in order to cut costs of production.   There is no information on where the pure form of the sweetener will marketed. 

For more information on this sweetener, go to www.mmdnewswire.com and enter ‘Cweet’ in the search box. 

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