Patent ID: 8334006

Claim:
A process for producing a low-calorie sweetener composition, comprising the steps of: a) drying Stevia rebaudiana leaves; b) treating the dried Stevia rebaudiana leaves with water to extract sweet glycosides, wherein a leaves-water mixture is formed; c) filtering the leaves-water mixture to obtain an aqueous filtrate; d) directly treating the aqueous filtrate with calcium hydroxide or calcium oxide to raise the pH of the aqueous filtrate to about 10; e) directly neutralizing the treated aqueous filtrate with trivalent iron chloride; and f) filtrating the neutralized aqueous filtrate to obtain a filtrated aqueous filtrate, and evaporating the filtrated aqueous filtrate to dryness to obtain purified sweet glycosides to provide a high intensity sweetener; g) providing sugar granules as a low intensity sweetener; h) adjusting a moisture content of the sugar granules to a level of about 0.5% to about 1.5%; i) distributing the sugar granules on a vibrating surface to form a layer with thickness of about 10 to about 100 mm on the vibrating surface; j) dissolving the high intensity sweetener in an aqueous alcohol mixture with an alcohol content of about 0.1% to about 99.9% (v/v) to obtain a solution with about 10% to about 70% (w/w) solids to make a high intensity sweetener solution; k) dispersing the high intensity sweetener solution onto the sugar granules while maintaining an intensity of vibration at about 1 to about 2000 vpm; and l) drying the granules to form the low-calorie sweetener composition.