PureCircle awarded plant breeders’ rights for breakthrough Stevia varietal

Ingredion Incorporated, a global provider of specialty ingredients and leader in innovative sugar reduction solutions, is pleased to announce its stevia subsidiary PureCircle by Ingredion was granted plant breeders’ rights (PBR) for its proprietary stevia plant varietal by the Chinese regulators. This further enables Ingredion to grow and better serve an important market in China and globally.

PureCircle was granted with the rights to a new plant variety for stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) named "PCS-13" (Authorization Number: CNA 20191005282, the "PBR") in 2023, acknowledging its heritage as the industry pioneer in cultivating stevia varietals with optimized yields and steviol glycoside content. This PBR is one of several intellectual property rights that PureCircle holds related to PCS-13 and other varietals.  

PureCircle has been recognized as being the first company to map the genome of the stevia plant, enabling the ability to trace and identify proprietary varietals by unique genomic fingerprints. The learnings from the stevia genome have led to breakthroughs in creating better-tasting stevia solutions for food and beverage brands. PureCircle’s PCS-13 delivers high yields and high quantities of the most-sought-after steviol glycosides, strengthening the largescale adoption of stevia as the preferred plant-based sugar alternative sweetener. 

“Receiving PBR for our proprietary stevia varietal is a testament to years of plant breeding and development by the PureCircle organization,” said Nate Yates, chief executive officer of PureCircle. “The entire industry has benefited from these innovations, and the PBR grant allows us to begin the process to be fairly recognized as the innovation leader in stevia genetics and varietal development.” 

PureCircle holds one of the largest portfolios of stevia patents. It is committed to working with the Chinese authorities to protect and enforce its PBR and other intellectual property to uphold the integrity and benefit of sustainable and ethically-sourced stevia. 

“We have invested a tremendous amount of time and resources into our stevia breeding program, and are continuing to cultivate even more powerful stevia varietals for future innovations in the Chinese and global markets,” said Kurt Callaghan, Chief of Staff PureCircle. “We expect those companies utilizing our stevia varietals to do so properly and lawfully, and formally recognize PureCircle as the stevia varietal R&D provider to the industry, and we encourage users of stevia to ensure their stevia supply chains are not violating PureCircle’s intellectual property rights.”

Ingredion published a 2022 peer-reviewed Sweeteners Life Cycle Assessment which identified the environmental impacts of stevia and various caloric sweeteners. Stevia has significantly less environmental impact compared to other common caloric sweeteners like sugar and high-fructose corn syrup; roughly two-thirds of the total impact comes from the agriculture. PureCircle is committed to minimizing environmental impacts in China and globally even further by continuously improving the efficiency of its stevia plants.