Granulation of a stevia sweetener

1. A method for producing a sweetener comprising the steps of:

A) providing a Stevia sweetener powder;

B) reducing the particle size of the Stevia sweetener powder to a particle size of between about 20 to 60 μm;

C) treating the Stevia sweetener powder under reduced pressure of between about 0 mbar to 100 mbar and an elevated temperature of between about 90-130° C.;

D) cooling down the treated Stevia sweetener powder to a low temperature of about 25° C.; and

E) holding the cooled Stevia sweetener powder at the low temperature to obtain a high solubility Stevia sweetener powder with an increased solubility of at least about 30 g per 100 g of water; and

F) introducing the high solubility Stevia sweetener powder to a roll compaction apparatus to produce a compacted material; introducing the compacted material to a size reducing apparatus to obtain a granule mixture; and fractionating the granule mixture through a top screen having a screen size of US Mesh 10 and a bottom screen having a screen size of US Mesh 40, to obtain a granulated Stevia sweetener having a dissolution rate greater than a dissolution rate of the high solubility Stevia powder.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dissolution rate of the granulated Stevia sweetener is at least about 0.75 grams per minute.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein Stevia sweetener is selected from a group consisting of: Stevioside, Rebaudioside A, Rebaudioside B, Rebaudioside C, Rebaudioside D Rebaudioside E, Rebaudioside F, Steviolbioside, Dulcoside A, Rubusoside, and a mixture thereof.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein cooling the treated Stevia powder comprises introducing preheated nitrogen gas into a vacuum chamber and gradually reducing the nitrogen gas temperature.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the roll compaction apparatus operates at between about 5 rpm and about 20 rpm, and at a roll pressure of between about 10 bar to about 60 bar to produce the compacted material; and the size reducing apparatus comprises a set of sequentially located granulators equipped with rotors rotating at between about 50 rpm to about 2000 rpm to obtain the granule mixture.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the Stevia sweetener powder is selected from a group consisting of: Stevioside, Rebaudioside A, Rebaudioside B, Rebaudioside C, Rebaudioside D, Rebaudioside E, Rebaudioside F, Steviolbioside, Dulcoside A, Rubusoside, and a mixture thereof.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising the step of combining the Stevia sweetener powder with an additional ingredient before introducing the powder to the roll compaction apparatus.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein the additional ingredient is selected from the group consisting of: a high intensity sweetener; a natural sweetener; a sugar alcohol; a flavoring agent; a flavor modifying agent; a taste modifying agent; a bulking agent; and a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 5 , wherein the granulators comprise U-shaped screens having opening sizes ranging from about 0.5 mm to about 6.0 mm.

10. The method of claim 5 , comprising a first granulator and a second granulator, said first granulator being equipped with a U-shaped screen having an opening size of about 3.1 mm and said second granulator being equipped with a U-shaped screen having an opening size of about 1.6 mm.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dissolution rate of the granulated Stevia sweetener is at least 8.6% greater than the dissolution rate of the high solubility Stevia powder.