The Codex Alimentarius Commission on Food Additives, JEFCA, has updated 1-12.2.21 a monograph devoted to stevia-based sweeteners (or sweeteners). (1) In the old continent, reg. EU 2021/1156 then authorized ‘enzymatically produced steviol glycosides‘. (2)
However, the use of the leaves and seeds of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni remains banned in Europe as in the U.S. This loses the ‘naturalness’ that is proper to the ‘sweet herb,’ Ka´a He´ê, in the centuries-old tradition of the Guaraní tribes.
Biodiversity is also lost, unfortunately, in the assumption of steviol glycosides made by fermenting only GMO yeasts. Which Big Food is definitely going to push aside with synthetic GMO imitations. (3) Distant worlds.
1) JEFCA, Codex Alimentarius.
1.1) Update of the monograph
JECFA, the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives, has updated the chemical information, assay methods of steviol glycosides and glucosylated steviol glycosides, and solubility of all steviol glycosides. The two previous monographs required products to consist of at least 95 percent steviol glycosides on a dry basis.
Scientific research has, moreover, shown in recent years the better sensory characteristics of some minor glycosides (e.g., rebaudioside M, rebaudioside D) than the major ones (stevioside, rebaudioside A). And synthetic biology technologies have been developed to produce sweeteners with high proportions of minor glycosides in the laboratory.
1.2) Steviol glycosides, 4 technologies with a deception
The monograph updated by JEFCA exposes the following four technologies. Note well that the second of them is not derived from the plant but from the synthesis of GMO microorganisms alone:
– (a) Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni steviol glycosides. Aqueous extraction of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves and preliminary purification of the extract in a first step, followed by recrystallization of steviol glycosides. Authorized in the EU as E 960 a sweetener, steviol glycosides,
– (b) steviol glycosides from fermentation. Genetically modified microorganisms (yeasts) are used to produce synthetic ‘steviol glycosides’ in the laboratory. The consumer has no notice of the GMO matrix of raw materials, as microorganisms are excluded from the relevant information. Not yet authorized in the EU,
(c) Enzymatically modified steviol glycosides. GMO enzymes enable the conversion of the major steviol glycosides extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni into the minor ones. It is the additive E 960c, enzymatically produced steviol glycosides, (2)
(d) Enzymatically modified glycosylated steviol glycosides. Enzyme-catalyzed reactions allow glucose units to be added to steviol glycosides extracted from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves. Still unlicensed in EU.
1.3) Effects of the revision
Codex Alimentarius, it is recalled, is the primal source of food law. The compilation of its standards by the appropriate Commissions, established in the 1960s by FAO and WHO, took on essential value when the WTO recognized as legitimate the regulations of its member states that were consistent with them. (4)
The Codex Commission on Food Additives’ (JEFCA) green light for the use of the seconds of the four aforementioned technologies actually lays the groundwork for facilitating the approval pathways for the resulting sweetener additives in the various states that are members of the respective organizations. Without, of course, disregarding compliance with risk analysis procedures.
2) Stevia, Ka´a He´ê. The sweet plant
‘Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni is named after the chemist Ovidio Rebaudi, who analyzed the plant when invited to do so by Bertoni (who discovered it among local herbalists, the yerbateros, in 1887, ed. See Rebaudi, 1900; Kienle et al., 2008; MAG, 1991).
The place of origin of Stevia rebaudiana is between 22° and 24° latitude in the southern hemisphere and between 55° and 56° west longitude. This area includes the Paraguayan Amambay Plateau and the eastern parts of Mato Grosso do Sul (Katayama et al., 1976).’ (5)
2.1) Indigenous Traditions
Stevia – Ka´a He´ê, in indigenous languages – is a wild plant native to parts of South America, in the territories inhabited by the Guaraní Paí Taviterá (Paraguay) and Kaiowá (Brazil). Indigenous communities first use it as a medicinal plant to soothe toothache, stomach and menstrual pain, diarrhea, etc. (6)
Ka´a He´ê is allowed to rest in water, i.e., immersed in boiling water, to sweeten drinks and infusions (e.g., mate). Its use is so common that it includes body care, in cleaning the teeth and face. It is then used in fields both to stimulate plant growth and to feed and strengthen poultry. (6)
2.2) Land grabbing, deforestation, slavery
The natives cared for the environment so that Ka´a He´ê could grow without being damaged by fungi and harvested it at the time of use. The plant was considered a gift from nature to communities, who grew it to fulfill their needs and exchanged its seeds to share its benefits.
However, the Guaraní have suffered massive land grabbing(land grabbing) and deforestation in recent decades. Most of them have been deported to reserves, squeezed at the edge of grasslands and sugarcane monocultures established following the devastation of primary forests. Thousands of Guaraní were forced into forced labor, hundreds of activists killed. (6)
3) Biodiversity, rights, deceptions.
3.1) Paper Rights
The Convention on Bi ological Diversity (CBD) and the Nagoya Protocol recognize the right of holders of traditional knowledge about biological diversity to receive equitable benefits. And scientific assessments of synthetic biology should follow a ‘precautionary approach‘ that also considers socio-economic aspects ‘with the full participation, where appropriate, of local and indigenous communities.’
The UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), adopted on 9/23/07, has precise about territories and traditional knowledge. There is also the
UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas.
, dated 19.11.18. To complete the picture of trampled rights.
3.2) Biopiracy
International trade in steviol glycosides began in the 1870s, nearly a century after the discovery of stevia by Swiss botanist Moisés Santiago Bertoni among the Guaraní and Mestizos tribes. Since then the Corporations have also registered dozens of stevia varieties in Paraguay and more than a thousand patents on extraction and replication of glycosides. (7)
Biopiracy has been unleashed with cultural appropriation of the heritage of a people fractured from their lands, marginalized, abused with violence and brutality. The ‘equitable sharing of benefits associated with the use of genetic resources‘ has never been seen. In defiance of the rights proclaimed in Nagoya and the UN Conventions, the Guaraní live among hardship.
3.3) Deception and greenwashing
Lobbyists from ISA–the International Stevia Council, the dome of industry corporations–have succeeded in their goal of deliberately confusing, even in terminology, glycosides derived from the plant versus their synthetic replication from GMO microorganisms.
The deception about the ‘naturalness’ of these additives is carried on on ISA’s own website, where it refers to ‘traditional extraction methods‘ after referring to ‘centuries of experience.’ (8) Ion exchange resins, genetic engineering, ‘traditional’ synthetic biology?
#ESG, #duediligence, worlds away
Dario Dongo, with the collaboration of Isis Consuelo Sanlucar Chirinos
Cover image from dossier cited in footnote 6
Notes
(1) Codex Alimenrarius. Specification Monograph prepared by the meeting of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA), 91st Meeting 2021. (Framework for) STEVIOL GLYCOSIDES. https://www.fao.org/3/cb8031en/cb8031en.pdf
(2) D. Dongo, A. A. della Penna. Stevia, via Libera in EU to Rebaudioside M. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 8/30/21, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/innovazione/stevia-via-libera-in-ue-al-rebaudioside-m
(3) Dario Dongo. Stevia, sweet superfood at biotech risk. GIFT(Great Italian Food Trade). 2.4.18, https://www.greatitalianfoodtrade.it/dolcificare/stevia-dolce-superfood-a-rischio-biotech
(4) For more on Codex Alimentarius, see theebook Food safety, mandatory rules and voluntary standards.
(5) Francois Meienberg, Laura Sommer and Tamara Lebrecht (Berne Declaration), Miguel Lovera and Silvia Gonzalez (CEIDRA), Benjamin Luig (Misereor), Volker von Bremen, Kurt Steiner (Pro Stevia Switzerland), Marcos Glauser (SUNU), Udo Kienle (University of Hohenheim). (2015). The bitter sweet taste of Stevia. Public Eye (formerly the Berne Declaration) https://www.publiceye.ch/en/publications/detail/the-bitter-sweet-taste-of-stevia.
(6) De El ka’a he’ê a la estevia. La transformación de un bien común en mercancía. Elementos para evaluar los impactos de la biología sintética en comunidades campesinas e indígenas. (2018). Red de Evaluación Social de Tecnologías en América Latina (Red TECLA). https://www.redtecla.org/sites/default/files/Estevia-web.pdf
(7) El ka’a he’ê amenazado por la biología sintética y las patentes. Base investigaciones sociales (Paraguay). https://www.baseis.org.py/el-kaa-hee-amenazado-por-la-biologia-sintetica-y-las-patentes/
(8) https://internationalsteviacouncil.org/about-stevia/faqs/
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.
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