NNB Nutrition revolutionizes natural sweeteners with SweetVantage. A 3-year, $2.5M project delivers clean-tasting stevia that covers the entire palate. Perfect for beverages and powders.
The search for the perfect natural sweetener has challenged food scientists for decades. While stevia has long shown promise, challenges with taste, stability, and bitterness have held it back from widespread adoption. Here to save the day, the pioneers at NNB Nutrition, a company known for groundbreaking metabolic innovations like GlucoVantage dihydroberberine, are bringing their scientific expertise to the natural sweetener space with SweetVantage.
SweetVantage: A Better Stevia Extract with More Rounded Flavor
After investing $2.5 million and three years of intensive research and development, NNB Nutrition has engineered a breakthrough: a technology for producing stevia that covers the front, middle, and back of the palate, delivering clean sweetness with more roundness of flavor that other stevia products fail to do. This development comes at a crucial time, as consumers increasingly demand natural alternatives to artificial sweeteners while maintaining strict requirements for taste and metabolic health.
SweetVantage was first introduced by NNB at SupplySide West 2024, and is now available to industry for the next generation of naturally-flavored products.
For NNB Nutrition, SweetVantage represents a natural progression in their mission to enhance metabolic health. The company has already established itself as an industry leader in blood sugar management with GlucoVantage dihydroberberine and has pioneered beverage-stable nootropic technology. Now, they’re applying this same scientific rigor to revolutionize the natural sweetener market.
We get into SweetVantage below, but first, stay up to date with NNB Nutrition’s latest innovations by subscribing to PricePlow’s NNB Nutrition news alerts below:
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The Growing Need for Natural Sweeteners
The average American consumes over 140 pounds of sugar annually, a staggering figure that’s fueled an epidemic of metabolic disorders.[1] While artificial sweeteners emerged as an early solution, mounting evidence suggests they may contribute to changes in the gut microbiome.[2]
This has created a significant market shift, with consumers actively seeking natural alternatives that can provide sweetness without health consequences or disruptions. Yet finding the right solution has proved challenging – many natural sweeteners either lack the taste profile consumers expect or come with their own set of limitations.
Stevia has emerged as a promising candidate, with centuries of safe use dating back to indigenous peoples in South America.[3] However, traditional stevia extracts often suffer from bitter aftertaste issues that limit their widespread adoption. This is where advanced extraction and formulation technology becomes crucial.
Research indicates that properly formulated steviol glycosides can actually support healthy blood sugar levels while providing satisfying sweetness.[4] These compounds work through unique mechanisms that don’t spike insulin or disrupt the gut microbiome – a significant advantage over both sugar and artificial sweeteners.
However, it’s been two decades since stevia entered the dietary supplement market, and it seemingly hit a wall — until now:
SweetVantage: A Breakthrough in Natural Sweetening
After extensive research into steviol glycosides – the naturally-occurring sweet compounds found in the stevia plant – NNB Nutrition has developed what may be the most balanced natural sweetener profile ever formulated. Through a carefully-controlled extraction and purification process backed by $2.5 million in research and development, SweetVantage delivers the sweetness consumers want without the bitter notes that have historically limited stevia’s adoption.
The Science of Rounded Sweetness
What makes SweetVantage unique is its targeted approach to taste receptor activation. Through advanced analytical testing, NNB’s research team has mapped out the sensory profile of various steviol glycosides and their interactions with taste receptors. The result is a more complete sweetness profile that hits multiple regions of the palate.[5]
When visualized on a sensory spider web graph, SweetVantage shows:
- Higher umami (savory/rich) components than monk fruit
- Better balanced sweetness compared to isolated steviol glycosides
- Significantly lower astringency than both sugar and other natural sweeteners
- A cleaner finish with minimal lingering aftertaste
Advantages Over Traditional Stevia Products
SweetVantage represents a significant leap forward in natural sweetener technology:
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Superior Taste Profile
Unlike first-generation stevia products that often came with bitter or metallic off-notes, SweetVantage delivers a clean, sugar-like sweetness. This is achieved through NNB’s selective extraction process that optimizes the ratio of beneficial compounds while minimizing less desirable ones.
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Enhanced Stability
Through three years of stability testing, NNB has demonstrated SweetVantage’s excellent performance across a range of pH levels, temperatures, and application environments. This makes it particularly valuable for beverage applications where stability challenges have historically limited natural sweetener use.
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Clean Label Opportunity
For manufacturers looking to meet growing consumer demand for natural ingredients, SweetVantage can be labeled simply as “steviol glycosides” – a major advantage in today’s clean-label marketplace.
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Cost-Effective Solution
Despite its premium quality, NNB’s efficient production process allows SweetVantage to be priced competitively with other high-purity stevia extracts. When factoring in its superior taste profile and reduced need for masking agents, SweetVantage often proves more economical in final formulations.
SweetVantage+: NNB’s Allulose Enhanced Version
To enhance the versatility of their natural sweetener platform, NNB Nutrition has developed SweetVantage+, which combines their optimized steviol glycoside blend with allulose – a unique low-calorie sugar with functional benefits of its own.[6]
Allulose is a rare sugar that exists naturally in small amounts in foods like maple syrup and raisins. What makes it special is its extremely low caloric value (<0.4 kcal/g) compared to regular sugar (4 kcal/g), while still providing many of sugar’s functional properties.[6]
The combination in SweetVantage+ creates several unique advantages:
NNB Nutrition revolutionizes nootropic beverages with their brain health platform! GeniusPure Alpha-GPC, MitoPrime, SalidroPure and more – finally solving stability issues that have plagued liquid nootropics. XPO NRG proves these ingredients can transform the RTD market.
- Enhanced Mouthfeel: Allulose provides the body and texture that’s often missing from stevia-only formulations
- Better Baking Performance: Unlike standalone stevia products, SweetVantage+ can caramelize and brown in baking applications
- Improved Blood Sugar Response: Both active compounds work through complementary mechanisms to support healthy glucose metabolism
- Synergistic Taste: The combination helps round out the sweetness profile while maintaining a clean finish
SweetVantage+ especially excels in:
- Baked goods requiring browning
- Ready-to-drink beverages needing mouthfeel enhancement
- Products targeting keto and low-carb consumers
- Formulations where matching sugar’s functional properties is crucial
If looking for a “sugar substitute” — both in terms of taste and texture — SweetVantage+ is the next big thing.
More Science Behind Steviol Glycosides in SweetVantage
Steviol glycosides have been extensively studied for their effects on metabolism and taste perception. While we’re here for the taste, it’s great to know that there are metabolic benefits as well. Research shows they can help maintain healthy blood sugar levels when consumed with carbohydrate-containing meals, without causing hypoglycemia.[7]
The compounds work through multiple mechanisms. They help moderate post-meal blood glucose levels by supporting healthy insulin sensitivity, particularly when consumed alongside carbohydrates.[6] This effect is valuable for both general wellness and athletic performance, where blood sugar control is crucial.
SweetVantage vs. traditional sweeteners showing improved taste characteristics across multiple parameters including reduced bitterness, balanced aftertaste, and enhanced umami notes compared to conventional stevia extracts and monk fruit
Steviol glycosides are especially interesting due to their interaction with the brain’s taste perception system. Research has shown they activate specific ion channels (TRPM5) in taste receptor cells, leading to enhanced taste perception without the metabolic impact of sugar.[5] This helps explain why properly formulated steviol glycosides can deliver a more complete sweetness profile than artificial sweeteners.
The safety profile of steviol glycosides is well-established through both historical use and modern research. Multiple regulatory bodies worldwide have confirmed their safety, with no concerns about long-term consumption at typical usage levels, including the European Food Safety Authority[8] and the FDA, which has received over two dozen GRAS notices on various stevia-based applications that they have not objected to.[9]
Applications & Usage
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Building upon their expertise in beverage-stable ingredients — as demonstrated in their innovative brain health platform — NNB Nutrition has engineered SweetVantage to excel in beverage applications. The ingredient’s stability across various pH levels and temperatures makes it particularly suitable for ready-to-drink formulations, where many natural sweeteners traditionally face challenges.
The Next Generation of Beverages
In beverage applications, SweetVantage demonstrates:
- Lower astringency
- Excellent solubility
- pH stability
- Heat resistance during pasteurization
- Clean taste profile without the need for additional masking agents
Cleaner Powders
For powder formulations, SweetVantage integrates smoothly with other ingredients while maintaining its stability through various manufacturing processes. The ingredient is particularly effective in:
- Pre-workout supplements
- Protein powders
- Hydration formulas
- Meal replacement products
Recommended Usage
NNB Nutrition shined at SupplySide West 2024 with innovations like XPO NRG, GeniusPure, and SweetVantage, setting new standards in nutrition — with much more to come!
Recommended usage rates depend on the application and desired sweetness level, but generally fall within the 100-150mg range. Heavily-dosed pre-workout supplements may obviously need more, while lighter liquid beverages may need less.
Key formulation considerations:
- Start with lower concentrations when combining with other sweetening agents
- Account for potential synergistic effects with other naturally sweet ingredients
- Consider the final product’s pH and processing temperatures
- Adjust for the presence of proteins, fibers, or other ingredients that might affect taste perception
Conclusion & Future Outlook
Through their extensive development of SweetVantage, NNB Nutrition continues to demonstrate their commitment to solving real-world formulation challenges — and doing it in a metabolically sound way. Just as they revolutionized the blood sugar support category with GlucoVantage and pioneered new stability technologies with their brain health platform, NNB has now tackled one of the industry’s most persistent challenges – creating a natural sweetener that truly delivers on both taste and function.
Shawn Wells and Dustin Elliott of NNB Nutrition join the PricePlow Podcast for Episode #152 to discuss innovative ingredients that capture ongoing trends like GLP-1 and MPS. We also get into Dustin’s trip to China, NNB’s participation in XPO NRG with MitoPrime, and Shawn’s psychedelic experiences and his post-trip supplement stack.
With growing concerns about artificial sweeteners and increasing demand for natural alternatives, SweetVantage arrives at a crucial time for the supplement and functional food industries. Its unique combination of clean taste, proven stability, and metabolic benefits positions it as more than just another sweetener – it’s a complete formulation solution.
This development aligns perfectly with NNB’s broader innovation strategy, which includes groundbreaking technologies like FlowTech for non-clumping ingredients and novel metabolic support compounds, as recently discussed in Episode #152 of the PricePlow Podcast with Shawn Wells and Dustin Elliott.
Whether you’re a brand looking to clean up your labels or a manufacturer seeking better-tasting natural formulations, SweetVantage provides the versatility and performance needed to meet modern consumer demands.
Now, maybe it’s time to get a naturally-sweetened version of XPO NRG!!
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