Sugar Alcohols (Polyols) - Sweeteners: Nutritional Aspects, Applications, and Production Technology - page 63

comparable to those of sucrose such as solubility in water, viscosity of aqueous solutions, hygro-
scopicity, and sweetening potency, maltitol has a lower energy value and higher heat of dissolution
than that of sucrose, which prepares this polyol for speciic applications like food and pharmaceuti-
cal products with low calorie. Maltitol inds more and more applications as a low calorie sweetener
and a cariogenic additive in toothpastes, mouthwash, and tablets (Maguire et al. 2000).
High-maltose glucose corn syrups are the starting material from which pure maltose is obtained
by chromatographic separation on ion-exchange resins for maltitol production. Depending on the
separation technique, maltose syrups with different purities (85%-98%) are obtained. The syrups
are evaporated to a solids content of 50% and then hydrogenated. Initially, hydrogenated syrups
were spray-dried together with a carrier (alginates, methyl celluloses). The products have a maltitol
content of >85% and are very hygroscopic. Crystallization of maltitol from water was achieved in
the early 1980s. Continuous crystallization processes are also being used now (Kristott and Jones
1992; Ohno et al. 1982).
Crystallization is the most dificult step to control during all stages of maltitol preparation, and
to be able to control the size distribution and the purity of the produced crystals is the important
task. Crystallization is an important unit of operation for the manufacture of many sugars, polyols,
salts, etc. It represents a separation technique that is also used for product puriication. The product
obtained by crystallization has to show well-deined chemical and physical properties, as well as
a certain crystal size distribution. This process involves many factors not always easy to control
and largely affects the inal product quality and particularly crystal purity. The presence of impu-
rities in industrial sugar syrups leads to important modiications in the crystal shape. Indeed, the
presence of maltotriitol in the crystallization medium has been shown to control the formation of
bipyramidal or prismatic maltitol crystals (Capet et al. 2004; Leleu et al. 2008). On the other hand,
if the crystallization process is not technically optimized, amorphous structures may be obtained,
and their evolution to more stable structures during storage leads generally to bad shelf-life stability
(Gharsallaou et al. 2010).
Digestion of maltitol requires hydrolysis before absorption. Absorption in human subjects is
reported to range from 5% to 80% (Beaugerie et al. 1990); the wide range is partly due to the use
of invasive methods and partly due to the incorrect evaluation of results from noninvasive meth-
ods. Previous studies revealed a lower limit to absorption of 35% for maltitol (10 g) in the solution.
Second, glycemia and insulinemia indicate a lower limit to absorption of 35% to 27%, respectively,
for maltitol (25-50 g) in the solution. Third, based on indirect calorimetry following the ingestion
of a high-polymer maltitol syrup containing 50% maltitol and 50% polymer and separate study
of the polymer fraction (Sinaud et al. 2002), the energy value of maltitol can be estimated. This
estimated energy value corresponds to maltitol absorption of approximately 32% when consumed
in three mixed solid meals interspersed by three maltitol drinks (totaling 50 g maltitol in 50 g
polymer daily). On the basis of energy values for maltitol proposed by several authorities, absorb-
ability by consensus is 45% (American Diabetes Association 2001; Australia New Zealand Food
Authority 2001; Bar 1990; Bernier and Pascal 1990; Brooks 1995; Dutch Nutrition Council 1987;
Life Sciences Research Ofice 1994, 1999). The products of hydrolysis by intestinal brush-border
disaccharidases are glucose and sorbitol (Livesey 2003).
The enhancing effects of maltitol on intestinal calcium absorption were irst reported by Goda
et al. (1992), who demonstrated that the consumption of a 10% maltitol diet by rats resulted in
elevated calcium absorption. In vitro experiments using everted ileal segments of rats suggested that
maltitol accelerated passive diffusion of calcium in the lower part of the small intestine (Goda et
al. 1993; Kishi et al. 1996). Another disaccharide sugar alcohol, lactitol (Ammann et al. 1988), and
the monosaccharide sugar alcohols sorbitol (Vaughan and Filer 1960; Suzuki et al. 1985), mannitol
(Armbrecht and Wasserman 1976), and xylitol (Hämäläinen et al. 1985) were reported to increase
intestinal calcium absorption. Although it has been assumed that the enhancement of intestinal cal-
cium absorption by maltitol and other sugar alcohols results from enhancement of passive diffusion