Sugars & Sweeteners
Stevia Powder in gelato
Stevia powder is a purified natural sweetener made of steviol glycosides extracted from the Stevia rebaudiana leaf. In gelato it delivers intense sweetness (roughly 300x sucrose) with zero calories, zero sugar mass, and virtually no effect on freezing point, so it is used to replace part of the sugar's sweetening power without changing texture.
Balancing parameters
Per 100 g of product, verified against independent food-science sources (listed below).
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Total Solids | 100% |
| Water | 0% |
| Sugars | 0% |
| Fat | 0% |
| MSNF | 0% |
| Protein | 0% |
| POD (sweetening power) | 30000 |
| PAC (anti-freezing power) | 0 |
Typical use: 0.01-0.05% of the total mix (about 100-500 mg per kg) as a pure steviol-glycoside extract, adjusted to taste; it replaces sweetness only, not sugar mass.
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Open the balancerHow to use it in gelato
Use stevia powder to cut or replace sucrose while keeping perceived sweetness, for reduced-sugar or diabetic-friendly gelato. Because it is 200-400x sweeter than sugar, it is dosed in tiny amounts (about 0.1-0.5 g per kg of mix), so it adds essentially no solids and no freezing-point depression: its PAC contribution is treated as 0. This is its main limitation. Removing sucrose removes the bulk of your solids and most of your anti-freezing power (PAC), so a stevia-sweetened base tends to freeze hard, ice up, and lose body. To compensate you must restore the lost mass and PAC with non-sweet or low-sweet bulking agents (dextrose, maltodextrin, inulin, milk solids, or a sugar alcohol such as erythritol), and often boost stabilizers. Stevia only fixes sweetness (POD); it does not fix texture. It can also carry a slight licorice-like or bitter aftertaste at high doses, so it is usually blended with sugar rather than used as the sole sweetener.
Origin & background
Stevia rebaudiana is native to Paraguay and southern Brazil, where the Guarani people long used the leaf as a sweetener they called ka'a he'e ('sweet herb'). The sweet compounds were first isolated as pure stevioside in 1931 by French chemists Marc Bridel and Rene Lavieille. Purified steviol glycosides received a JECFA safety evaluation and an ADI of 4 mg/kg body weight (as steviol) in 2008, and the EU approved them as food additive E960 in 2011.
Frequently asked questions
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steviol_glycoside
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9920402/
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/steviol-glycoside
- https://foodadditives.net/natural-sweeteners/steviol-glycosides/
- https://freegelatobalancing.app/blog/dextrose
- https://www.icecreamscience.com/blog/stevia-ice-cream