Sweetener for Hamilton firm

A local company has won international recognition for a concentrate from an obscure Chinese plant, which does not add calories but tastes 300 times sweeter than sugar.

Hamilton-based Biovittoria has "patented" particular cultivars of luo han guo, a calabash of the cucumber family.

Scientifically known as Siraitia grosvenorii, its skin, seeds and flesh have traditionally been used by Chinese as a herbal medicine and to sweeten foods and drinks.

Biovittoria uses its own extraction process to produce a concentrate called PureLo, which has just won recognition as a generally regarded as safe food ingredient by an independent expert panel of internationally recognised scientists.