Sweeteners in General - Sweeteners: Nutritional Aspects, Applications, and Production Technology - page 2

carbohydrates. Next are oligosaccharides and polysaccharides. Oligosaccharides are made of 3-9
monosaccharide links. Polysaccharides consist of 10 to thousands of monosaccharide links. A com-
plex carbohydrate refers to many monosaccharide units linked together. Short carbohydrate chains
are those under 10 sugar molecules, and long chains are those over 10 sugar molecules.
Diabetics and people looking to reduce calories are often looking for sugar substitutes. There
were far more options than would have been imagined. There are still other sugars and sugar sub-
stitutes that are not included either because they are obscure and were not found or because they are
not commonly found in our diets.
Although sugar (sucrose) is the most common sweetener in food and beverage industries, it is
not suitable for all cases of applications, that is, some food and pharmaceutical products. Thus,
alternative sweeteners are needed to fulill that sugar gap by (1) providing choices to functional
properties, for example, caloric control and sugar intake; (2) managing weight problems; (3) aiding
diabetic concerns; (4) avoiding dental diseases; and (5) assisting in other sweetening aspects such as
sugar shortages and sweetening costs.
Sugar alternatives should be colorless, odorless, and heat-stable with a clean and pleasant taste.
Also, they should be water-soluble and stable to a wide range of acidic and basic food and beverage
applications. Finally, they should be safe (nontoxic, normally metabolized, etc.) and easily pro-
duced, handled, and stored.
1.2 SUGarS
Sugar is a carbohydrate found in every fruit and vegetable. All green plants manufacture sugar
through photosynthesis, but sugar cane and sugar beets have the highest natural concentrations.
Beet sugar and cane sugar—identical products that may be used interchangeably—are the most
common sources for the sugar used in the United States. Understanding the variety of sugars avail-
able and their functions in food will help consumers determine when sugar can be replaced or
combined with nonnutritive sweeteners.
Sugar comes in many forms. The following includes many different sugars, mostly made from
sugar cane or sugar beets, such as table sugar, fruit sugar, crystalline fructose, superine or ultraine
sugar, confectioner's or powdered sugar, coarse sugar, sanding sugar, turbinado sugar, brown sugar,
and liquid sugars.
1.3 SWeeteNer CateGOrIeS
Sweeteners can be categorized as low calories, reduced calories, intense calories, bulk calories,
caloric alternative calories, natural sugar-based calories, sugar polyol calories, nonnutritive low calories,
nonnutritive calories, nutritive calories, natural calories, syrups, intense sweeteners, and others.
Caloric alternative calories characterize the crystalline fructose, high fructose corn syrup,
isomaltulose, and trehalose. Intense sweeteners characterize the acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame,
brazzeine, cyclamate, glycyrrhizin, neohesperidine, neotame, saccharin, stevioside, sucralose, and
thaumati. Bulk sweeteners characterize the crystalline fructose, erythritol, isomalt, isomaltulose,
lactitol, malitol, malitol syrup, mannitol, sorbitol, sorbitol syrup, trehalose, xylitol, and crystalline
fructose. Nonnutritive, high-intensity sweeteners characterize the acesulfame-K, aspartame and
neotame, saccharin and cyclamate, and sucralose. Reduced calorie bulk sweeteners characterize the
erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol and maltitol syrups, sorbitol and mannitol, tagatose, and xylitol.
Low calorie sweeteners include acesulfame-K, alitame, aspartame, cyclamate, neohesperidin dihy-
drochalcone, tagatose, neotame, saccharin, stevioside, sucralose, and less common high-potency
sweeteners. Reduced calorie sweeteners include erythritol, hydrogenated starch hydrolysates and