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 less than 260 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 1 g per 100 g of water at ambient temperature; 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 to obtain a granulated Stevia sweetener having a particle size ranging from about 140 μm to about 680 μm and 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, Rebaudioside M, Rebaudioside N, Rebaudioside O, Steviolbioside, Dulcoside A, Rubusoside, other minor glycosides found in Stevia rebaudiana plants, 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, Rebaudioside M, Rebaudioside N, Rebaudioside O, Steviolbioside, Dulcoside A, Rubusoside, other minor glycosides found in Stevia rebaudiana plants, 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 1 , 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 or a combination thereof.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the dissolution rate of the granulated Stevia sweetener is at least about 5% greater than the dissolution rate of the high solubility Stevia powder.