Sweeter solutions for sustainable stevia – webinar

With its sweet taste, natural origins, and zero calories, stevia has become one of today's most popular sweeteners for sugar reduction and label-friendly formulation. But not all stevia sweeteners are created equal – in the wider market, there can be significant differences in sweetness quality and sustainability practices. In this webinar, you'll discover how Cargill innovation has led the way in stevia quality, sustainability and transparency.   

If you're wondering about the standards for cultivation, harvest, labor, and processing of stevia ingredients, you won't want to miss this webinar.

Stevia brings unique considerations for growing and harvest, and if transparency and quality are part of your brand's formula for success, you need to know what's behind all of your ingredients. 

Add to this the challenges formulators often face when attempting to create bullseye products that meet consumer flavor expectations, partnering with a supplier that provides the right ingredient and technical expertise is key to successful product launch and longevity.

Don't miss this webinar to learn about:

• Cargill's industry-leading Stevia Sustainability Agricultural Standard
• Lifecycle Analysis benchmarking the environmental footprints of 5 sweeteners
• Product prototypes and new developments in the pipeline

Moderator:

Francine Schoenwetter, Content Marketing Director, Informa Markets Health & Nutrition

Speakers:

Andrew Ohmes, Global Stevia Business Leader, Cargill

As the Global Stevia Business Leader for Cargill, Andrew Ohmes is responsible for delivering high-quality stevia products to the global market, which includes leading the commercial strategy and team, building customer relationships and working closely with sales and marketing teams to grow the business. Ohmes has 20 years of leadership experience at Cargill, with a particularly strong focus on business development, management, operations and research. Before taking his current role, Ohmes served as Commercial and Supply Chain Manger for the High Intensity Sweetener business. Prior to that, he was the Senior Process Chemist for Cargill’s natural Vitamin E facility. Ohmes holds a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from St. Ambrose University and Bachelor’s Degrees in Biochemistry and Chemical Science from Kansas State University. Currently, he serves as the President of the International Stevia Council and the Past Board Chair for the Calorie Control Council. Ohmes holds several patents globally for the production and purification of stevia.

Wade Schmelzer, Principal Food Scientist, Cargill

Wade Schmelzer is a principal food scientist within Cargill’s North American Food Applications team.  He is focused extensively on providing technical leadership in support of Cargill’s high intensity sweetener business. In this role, he has been actively involved in the development and commercial launch of new stevia leaf extract products in the ViaTech® portfolio, as well as the introduction of EverSweet™ stevia sweetener. From an applied perspective, Wade has a wealth of formulation experience across a wide array of food and beverage applications.  He has collaborated with application colleagues and customers on sugar reduction projects across the globe, helping to accelerate their product development cycle. Wade received Bachelor degrees in Business and Food Science from the University of Minnesota. He also received his Master’s degree in Food Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has been working at Cargill for 19 years supporting the development of various health and wellness focused ingredients with over 9 years of experience on formulating with stevia sweeteners.