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Is E960 (steviol glycosides) halal? The leaf, the ethanol and the yeast

E960 appears on lemonades, yoghurts and table sweeteners and sounds like a laboratory. Behind it are sweeteners from a leaf that are purified with ethanol and lately also come from yeast. This page explains where a halal question arises in that and how it is answered.

Published 9 October 2026

The short answer: yes. Steviol glycosides are the sweet compounds in the leaves of a South American shrub, no animal is involved, and Tayyib does not flag them. The questions that remain sit in two other places: the ethanol used to purify the powder, and, since 2025, a yeast that makes the same compounds with no leaf at all.

What is sweet in the leaf

The plant is Stevia rebaudiana, native to the border country between Paraguay and Brazil, where the Guaraní have sweetened their mate with its leaves for generations. What tastes sweet is not sugar but a group of glycosides: a core structure called steviol with several glucose units attached. The commonest in the leaf are stevioside, with three units, and rebaudioside A, with four. Rebaudioside M carries six, tastes most like sugar, and occurs in the leaf only in traces. That matters for what came later.

The sweetener has been approved in the EU since December 2011, by Regulation (EU) No 1131/2011. It is 200 to 350 times sweeter than sugar, so a food needs only milligrams of it.

From the leaf: E960a and the ethanol

The EU specification in Regulation (EU) No 231/2012 describes the classic route in two steps. First the leaves are extracted with water and the extract is pre-purified on ion exchangers. Then the steviol glycosides are recrystallised from methanol or aqueous ethanol until the powder is at least 95 per cent steviol glycosides.

The solvent is removed afterwards, but not completely. The specification allows at most 5000 mg of ethanol and 200 mg of methanol per kilogram of finished sweetener, so at most half a per cent of ethanol in the powder. Since only milligrams of the powder go into a kilogram of yoghurt or a litre of lemonade, at most one or two milligrams of ethanol arrive there, usually less. Ripe fruit juice carries many times that on its own.

This residue never appears on an ingredient list. It belongs to the making of the additive, not to the recipe of the food, and so it is not declared as an ingredient.

How the residue from purification is judged

Half a per cent in the powder intoxicates nobody. The real question is a different one: whether ethanol as such is impure, and whether it matters what it was made from. Two bodies whose decisions major certifiers work by have ruled on this explicitly, and both distinguish by origin.

MUI, Fatwa No 10 of 2018: ethanol from the production of intoxicating drinks is haram and impure, like khamr. Ethanol that does not come from that industry, whether synthetic or produced by some other fermentation, is not impure and may be used in food as long as it is harmless to health. The fatwa sets a limit of 0.5 per cent in the end product only for drinks.
Malaysia's National Fatwa Council, July 2011: alcohol that does not arise from making khamr is not impure. In flavourings and colourings it is permitted if the finished food contains no more than 0.5 per cent. The Malaysian authority JAKIM certifies according to these decisions.

By both standards the residue in a stevia powder is unproblematic, as long as its ethanol does not come from wine or other drink production. That is exactly where the EU specification is silent: it limits the quantity but not the origin. Agricultural alcohol from grain, sugar cane or molasses is usual, but not required. For a single product only a halal certificate proves it. How differently scholars otherwise weigh traces of ethanol is set out in the guide to flavourings.

Four letters since 2025

With Regulation (EU) 2025/652 of 2 April 2025, the EU split steviol glycosides into four additives that share the same maximum levels. They differ not in taste but in how they are made:

E960a, steviol glycosides from stevia: the route from the leaf described above.
E960b, steviol glycosides from fermentation: a genetically modified yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica, makes them from sugar, mainly rebaudioside M.
E960c, enzymatically produced steviol glycosides: enzymes convert purified glycosides from the leaf into rebaudioside M or D.
E960d, glucosylated steviol glycosides: enzymes attach extra glucose from starch to glycosides from the leaf.

The reason for the three new routes is rebaudioside M. It is the least bitter, but there is hardly any in the leaf, and from sugar or by conversion it can be made in quantity. Many packs still say only "Steviolglycoside" (steviol glycosides) or "E960", with no letter. The label then does not tell you which route is behind it.

From yeast: E960b and the growth medium

With E960b there is no leaf. The yeast grows in a fermentation tank and releases the glycosides. It is then separated off and killed by heat, the solution is concentrated, purified on ion exchangers and crystallised from ethanol. Live cells and DNA of the yeast must not be detectable in the finished substance. The same ceiling of 5000 mg of ethanol per kilogram applies, and with it the same judgement as above.

On the growth medium the specification says only that the yeast lives on a source of simple sugars. What else goes into the tank, for example as a nitrogen source, it does not name. This is the same gap as with natamycin, and it is judged by the same standard: under MUI Fatwa 1/2010 a microbial product is halal when the medium is pure. The reasoning is in the guide to E235. For E960b there is no sign of an animal medium, and a pack would not show it either.

With E960c and E960d the enzymes come from microorganisms. There the question moves one step further away, to the medium those microorganisms grew in. The enzymes themselves are a tool of production, not an ingredient.

What else is in the stevia pack

Because steviol glycosides are so intensely sweet, they cannot be spooned out. Stevia granules and stevia cubes therefore consist mostly of a bulking agent, usually erythritol or maltodextrin. Tayyib flags neither. Why erythritol is unproblematic despite the word alcohol is explained in the guide to sugar alcohols.

Drinks and yoghurts with stevia must carry "mit Süßungsmittel" (with sweetener) next to the name of the food, and the list then says "Süßungsmittel: Steviolglycoside" (sweetener: steviol glycosides) or gives the E number. Often flavouring stands next to it. Tayyib flags that as doubtful, for the reasons given in the guide to flavourings. So if Tayyib flags a drink with stevia, look at the other ingredients: it is not the sweetener.

What Tayyib flags

Not flagged: E960 with or without a letter, steviol glycosides, stevioside, rebaudioside, stevia and stevia extract.
Not flagged: erythritol and maltodextrin as a bulking agent.
Doubtful: flavouring with no further detail, even next to stevia.
Doubtful: ethanol or alcohol when it is itself on the ingredient list.

In short

E960 means steviol glycosides, sweeteners from the leaves of Stevia rebaudiana, 200 to 350 times sweeter than sugar.
From the leaf they are extracted with water and crystallised from methanol or ethanol. At most 0.5 per cent ethanol remains in the powder, traces in the food.
MUI and the Malaysian Fatwa Council hold that ethanol not from drink production is not impure. The EU specification does not name the origin of the ethanol.
Since 2025 there are E960a to E960d: from the leaf, from yeast fermentation, enzymatically converted and glucosylated.
For E960b the specification is silent on the growth medium apart from the sugar. Under MUI Fatwa 1/2010 its purity decides.
Tayyib flags none of these substances. A drink with stevia is flagged because of other ingredients, most often flavouring.

Frequently asked questions

Is E960 halal?

Yes, by everything known about how it is made. Steviol glycosides come from a plant or are made from sugar by yeast, and no animal raw material is involved. What stays open is only the origin of the ethanol used to purify them and, for E960b, the growth medium. Tayyib does not flag E960.

Does stevia contain alcohol?

A small residue from purification, nothing added. The pure sweetener may contain at most 5000 mg of ethanol per kilogram, that is 0.5 per cent. In a drink or yoghurt at most one or two milligrams per kilogram remain. MUI and the Malaysian Fatwa Council consider such ethanol unproblematic if it does not come from drink production.

What do E960a, E960b, E960c and E960d mean?

The route of production. E960a comes from the leaf, E960b from yeast fermentation, E960c from enzymatic conversion of glycosides from the leaf, E960d from attaching glucose from starch. The EU set the four numbers in 2025 with Regulation (EU) 2025/652.

Is stevia from fermentation halal?

By everything known, yes. The yeast makes the glycosides from sugar, is then killed and separated off, and its DNA must not be detectable in the finished substance. The EU specification names no growth medium besides the sugar. Under MUI Fatwa 1/2010 its purity decides, and there is no sign of an animal one.

Why does Tayyib still flag a drink with stevia?

Because of another ingredient. Tayyib does not flag steviol glycosides, E960 or stevia. If the same list has flavouring with no further detail, the drink is doubtful because of that, and ethanol or wine on the list are flagged too. The result shows which ingredient it is.