Stevia muffin have all qualities of sugar muffin
Researchers claim to have discovered a stevia muffin formulation that has all the qualities of a sugar muffin and gives four times the amount of fibre content.
A recently published study tells of a stevia muffin formulation with one third of sucrose replaced by stevia variety rebaudioside A.
The researchers said its stevia muffin retained the quality of a full sugar muffin and even significantly upped fibre-content when inulin or polydextrose was added.
The study said: “Glycosides from leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, an indigenous plant in central South America, might be promising alternative to artificial sweeteners in bakery products manufacture”.
Last November, steviol glycosides were approved for EU-use in 31 food categories, including high-fibre breakfast cereals. However, stevia cannot currently be used in bakery products.
The study added: “Because of its natural origin and the history of use it might be suspected that regulations become loosened in the future, and that Steviol glycosides will also be permitted in other sweet foods such as bakery products”.
Stevia has GRAS (Generally Recognised As Safe) status in the USA and can already been used in baked goods there.
The researchers compared several fibres to reach the optimium Reb A muffin as assessed by chemical, colour and texture analysis.
A combination of inulin or polydextrose with rebaudioside A results was found to produce results closest to a regular sugar muffin.
The use of wheat bran or apple fibre as bulk replacer was also seen to offset crumb colour deviations and off-tastes.
The inulin and polydextrose stevia formulations also significantly boosted fibre content. The reference sugar muffin contained 1.3g/100g of fibre, but was upped to 4.6 for inulin and 7.1g/100g for polydextrose, an increase of over 400%.
The study continued: “A further advantage of formulation modification is that also fibre content is affected so that the modified products are helpful in diminishing fibre uptake deficiency”.
It added that this would be enough to allow a “source of fibre” under EC regulations and stevia muffins with polydextrose could even be regarded as “high fibre” products.
