Sweetening Agent
Sweetening agent should have the following characteristics:
- High safety
- Good taste
- High stability
- Good water solubility
- Reasonable price
Sweetening Agents: The Complete Guide
Index of Sweetening Agent Contents
Sweetening agent refer to food additives that can impart sweetness to soft drinks. Sweetening agent can be divided into nutritive sweetening agent and non-nutritive sweetening agent according to their nutritional value; according to their sweetness, they can be divided into low-sweetness sweetening agent and high-sweetness sweetening agent; according to their source Divided into natural sweetening agent and synthetic sweetening agent(artificial sweetening agents).
Sweetening Agent Example
The Main Role of Sweetening Agent
The main functions of sweetening agent in food are as follows:
- Taste: Sweetening agent is one of the indicators of many foods. In order to make food and beverages palatable, it is necessary to add a certain amount of sweetening agent.
- The adjustment and enhancement of flavor generally require sweetening agent in pastries; in beverages, the adjustment of flavor includes the “sugar-acid ratio” item. The sweetening agent can make the product obtain a good flavor while retaining the fresh taste.
- The formation of flavor. Sweeteners and the flavor of many foods are complementary to each other. The taste of many products is produced by the combination of flavor substances and sweetening agent, so many foods add sweetening agent.
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Industrial Applications of Sweetening Agent
Sweetening agent have an important influence on the world’s food, from 8 million tons produced in 1900 to 70 million tons in 1970. As people’s health requirements become more and more demanding, it is hoped that the sweetener’s capacity will be as low as possible or even zero, with a good taste and a more reasonable price. Nearly a century before the 1950s and 1960s, most of the sweeteners used in the food industry were sucrose and saccharin from petrochemical industries. After the 1950s and 1960s, sweetening agent such as sodium cyclamate, dipeptide sweeteners, thaumatin, acesulfame potassium and alitame appeared in the United States, Europe and Japan.
Types of Sweetening Agents
There are many types of sweetening agents, which can be divided into:
According to their sources, they can be divided into natural sweetening agents and synthetic sweetening agents(artificial sweetening agents); according to their nutritional value, they can be divided into nutritional sweeteners and non-nutritive sweeteners; according to their chemistry Structure and properties are divided into sugar and non-sugar sweeteners. Sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, starch sugar and lactose are also natural sweeteners, but because they have been consumed by humans for a long time and are important nutrients, they are usually regarded as food raw materials and are not used as food additives in China.
Non-sugar sweeteners include natural sweeteners and synthetic sweeteners.
Natural sweeteners include stevioside, licorice, disodium glycyrrhizinate, tripotassium and trisodium glycyrrhizinate. Synthetic sweeteners include saccharin, sodium saccharin, sodium cyclamate, and alitame aspartame.
Sodium Saccharin
- Properties: colorless to white crystal or crystalline powder, odorless or slightly aromatic, extremely sweet and slightly bitter, and its sweetness is 200 to 700 times that of sucrose. An aqueous solution diluted 1,000 times still has a sweet taste, and the threshold is about 0.00048%. It is easily soluble in water, and its solubility increases rapidly with temperature. A 10% aqueous solution is neutral and slightly soluble in ethanol.
- Performance: The anions dissociated from sodium saccharin in water have a strong sweet taste, but the molecular state is sweet and bitter, so high-concentration aqueous solutions also have a bitter taste. Therefore, the concentration should be less than 0.02% when used. When heated in an acid medium, the sweetness disappears, and anthranilic acid can be formed to give a bitter taste.
- Preparation method: Phthalic anhydride is made into methyl anthranilate by amidation and esterification, then diazonium displacement and chlorination, and then undergoes ammonia cyclization to obtain sulfonyl benzoic acid imide, and finally carbonic acid It is obtained by treatment with sodium hydrogen.
Aspartame (APM)
- Properties: White crystalline powder, odorless, with strong sweetness. The pH value of the isoelectric point at 25°C is 5.2. Slightly soluble in water, about 1g/100mL; ethanol, 0.26mg/100mL. The pH of 0.8% aqueous solution is 4~6.5. It is unstable in aqueous solution, easily decomposed and loses sweetness.
- The performance has strong sweetness, and the sweetness of its dilute solution is about 100 to 200 times that of sucrose. The sweetness is very close to that of sugar, with a cooling sensation, without bitterness and metallic taste. Its stability is poor, and the structure is destroyed by high temperature, which reduces the sweetness, and even the sweetness disappears completely.
Aspartame does not produce heat and is suitable as a sweetener for patients with diabetes and obesity. - After entering the human body, aspartyl phenylalanine methyl ester can be rapidly metabolized into aspartic acid and phenylalanine, which are absorbed and utilized without being accumulated in the tissues.
The FAO/WHO (1981) evaluation of aspartame is safe and reliable, and the ADI is set at 0~0.04g/kg. The US FDA lists aspartame as a GARS substance. - The preparation method is formed by the condensation of L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine methyl ester salt.
Stevioside
- Appearance: white to light yellow crystalline powder, cool and sweet in taste. Melting point is 198~202℃, high temperature resistance. It is very easy to absorb moisture in the air, the solubility in water is about 0.12%, and it is slightly soluble in ethanol.
- The sweetness of performance is about 300 times that of sucrose, which is the closest natural sweetener to sucrose. Its sweetness is pure, long-lasting, delicious aftertaste, light and cool feeling, it can improve and enhance other sweeteners, and it is relatively stable under acidic and alkaline conditions. Stevioside is used as a sweetening agent in food.
- Preparation method Stevia is a perennial herb belonging to the Compositae family. The leaves contain sweet ingredients. It is produced in the northeastern part of Paraguay in South America and Brazil.
There are many ways to extract steviol glycosides. For example, the leaves are dried and extracted with ethanol, and ether is added to the extract to precipitate the odorants, and then recrystallized with ethanol to obtain. The more economical route is: Stevia leaves and stems are immersed in water, precipitated, refined by ion exchange resin, and spray dried.
Glycyrrhiza，Licorice
Licorice, also known as sweet licorice, powdered licorice, is the dried root and stem of leguminous licorice (Glycyrrhiza Uralensis Fisch), G. glabra or G. inflata Bat.. Licorice is mainly produced in Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang. The sweet component of licorice is mainly glycyrrhizin, with a molecular formula of C42H62O16 and a relative molecular mass of 822.54. The structural formula is shown in the figure.
- Characters Licorice root is long cylindrical, 30-100cm long and 0.6-3.5cm in diameter. The surface is reddish-brown or gray-brown, with significant longitudinal wrinkles, grooves, sparse fine heel marks, and long lenticels. The texture is firm, the cross section is fibrous, yellow-white, powdery, and the cross section has obvious cambium ring patterns and radial textures, with cracks. There are bud marks on the surface of the rhizome and pith in the center of the cross section.
The licorice is chopped and the traditional Chinese medicine is called fur. The filtrate obtained after soaking in water is evaporated and concentrated to obtain licorice cream or licorice powder. Licorice powder is light yellow, sweet and slightly bitter. The aqueous solution is light yellow, and the concentrated liquid is often dark brown, with special aroma and sweetness. - Performance Licorice root contains glycyrrhizin 6%~14%, sucrose 5%, starch 20%~30%, glucose 2.5%, asparagine 2%~4%, mannitol 6%, resin 2%~4 %, 1.5%~4% gum, and a small amount of pigment, fat, tannic acid and volatile oil. Licorice is calm in nature, sweet in taste, has the functions of clearing away heat and detoxifying, eliminating phlegm and relieving cough, invigorating the spleen and qi, relieving pain, and reconciling the properties of medicine.
The sweetness of glycyrrhizin is 200 times that of sucrose, and its sweetness is different from that of sucrose. It only has a sweet taste after a short while after the entrance, and it has a long retention time and has a special flavor. Although glycyrrhizin has no fragrance, it can increase fragrance. - Toxic licorice taking too long can cause increased blood pressure and decreased blood potassium, especially in the elderly and patients with cardiovascular disease and kidney disease, which can easily cause hypertension and congestive heart disease.
China has used licorice as a seasoning and herbal medicine since ancient times. Normal use is harmless to the human body and is non-drug. - Preparation method: Remove impurities, wash, moisturize, slice and dry the heel and stem of licorice.
The Development Trend of Sweetening Agents
Nutritional sweetening agents means that when a certain sweetener has the same sweetness as sucrose, its calorific value is more than 2% of the caloric value of sucrose. Non-nutritive sweetening agents are defined as having a calorific value lower than 2% of the caloric value of sucrose.
Natural non-nutritive sweetening agents have received increasing attention and are the development trend of sweetening agents. WHO pointed out that more than 50 million people with diabetes have reached more than one-quarter of Americans who require low-calorie foods. Among sucrose substitutes, aspartame is mainly used in the United States, which accounts for more than 90%, while Japan is dominated by steviol glycosides, and Europeans are more interested in AK sugar (acesulfame K). These three non-nutritive sweeteners can be used in China.
From the perspective of market demand and research on sweetening agents, the development trend of sweetening agents mainly has two aspects:
- High sweetness sweetening agents
High-sweetness sweetening agents have the advantages of high sweetness, low calories, less caries, high safety, etc., and most of these sweetening agents are non-sugar substances, which are not controlled by insulin during the metabolic process and will not cause obesity And blood pressure rise, suitable for diabetes and obesity patients as a sweet substitute. - Functional sweetening agents
Functional sweetening agents (mainly oligosaccharides at this stage) not only have the characteristics of low calorie, high stability, safety and non-toxicity, but also have the unique function of promoting the reproduction of probiotics and inhibiting the growth of harmful bacteria. The physiological functions of functional oligosaccharides currently confirmed mainly include the following aspects:- It is not easy to be absorbed by the human body, and provides very low or no calories. It can be used for diabetics, obesity patients and hyperglycemia patients.
- Activate bifidobacteria in the intestines and promote their growth. Functional oligosaccharides are the proliferation factors of beneficial bacteria in the intestinal tract, among which the most obvious object of proliferation is bifidobacteria. Human trials have shown that certain functional oligosaccharides, such as isomalto-oligosaccharides, are used by bifidobacteria and certain lactic acid bacteria in the large intestine after being ingested into the human body, while the harmful intestinal bacterium Perfringens and Clostridium spoilage Bacteria cannot be used because the surface of bifidobacteria has oligosaccharide receptors, and many oligosaccharides are effective bifidus factors.
- It will not cause tooth decay, which is good for maintaining oral hygiene.
- It has some physiological functions of dietary fiber, such as lowering serum cholesterol and preventing colon cancer.