Last reviewed: 11 May 2026
Plant-derived, zero-calorie sweetener used across UK drinks and snacks.
E960 appears as "steviol glycosides", "stevia", or under product names like Truvia and Pure Via. Extracted from Stevia rebaudiana plant leaves; zero calories; 200–400 times sweeter than sugar. The published cancer, DNA-damage and reproductive evidence does not show harm at typical intakes. Long-term human data is still relatively young.
E960 refers to steviol glycosides — sweet compounds extracted from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, a plant native to Paraguay and Brazil where the leaves have been used as a sweetener for centuries.
EFSA's 2010 review and JECFA's subsequent re-evaluations concluded that purified steviol glycosides at the established acceptable daily intake (4mg/kg body weight per day, as steviol equivalents) do not cause cancer, DNA damage or reproductive harm in the studies reviewed. This is the strongest part of the stevia evidence base.
A handful of small clinical trials in people with hypertension show modest blood-pressure reductions with high-dose stevia preparations. Effect sizes are small and not consistent across studies — useful context, not a treatment.
Steviol glycosides do not raise blood glucose, which is why stevia is preferred over sugar in some diabetes guidance. A small number of studies suggest possible improvements in insulin sensitivity, but the evidence is preliminary.
Laboratory and animal studies show that stevia can shift gut microbiome composition; the picture is mixed and no clinical outcome has yet been linked. The evidence is less negative than for some artificial sweeteners and less reassuring than the marketing copy on stevia products tends to claim.
The most common consumer complaint is the licorice or bitter aftertaste, which highly purified extracts (Rebaudioside A, Rebaudioside M) reduce. A small minority of people report bloating or nausea at high doses, more often traced to bulking agents like erythritol in stevia products than to the steviol glycosides themselves.
Very rarely, people allergic to ragweed, daisies or chrysanthemums (the Asteraceae family) report cross-reactions to stevia.
The US and EU restricted stevia through the 1980s and 1990s on the basis of older animal studies suggesting reproductive concerns. Newer rigorous toxicology work did not replicate those findings. The FDA granted GRAS status to purified rebaudioside A in 2008; EFSA approved steviol glycosides in 2010. The earlier ban era is sometimes attributed to industry pressure protecting the artificial-sweetener market, though that's harder to evidence than the toxicology is.
Stevia has been used as a commercial sweetener in Japan since the 1970s — the longest single-country use record.
Look for "steviol glycosides", "stevia", or E960 in the ingredient list. In table-top sweeteners and protein products, stevia is often blended with erythritol (E968) or maltodextrin — check the full ingredient list rather than just the "sweetened with stevia" claim on the front of pack.
The 4mg/kg per day ADI is a ceiling no normal use is likely to reach: at 70kg body weight, that's 280mg of steviol equivalents — roughly the sweetness of about 1.4kg of sugar in a day.
Scan barcodes to see which sweeteners turn up in your food and how often E960 appears in your week.
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