Sweeteners

Food Toxicology 2(2+0)
Lesson 22 : Food Additives, Colors, and Flavors

Sweeteners

  • Saccharin
    Saccharin is 500 times sweeter than sucrose. This well-known nonnutritive artificial sweetener has very low toxicity.

  • Sodium cyclamate
    This odorless, white crystalline powder is 30 times sweeter than sucrose. Two-year studies done in rats fed sodium cyclamate (Figure 17.9) resulted in bladder cancer.

  • Aspartame
    Aspartame undergoes hydrolysis into three components, aspartic acid, phenylalanine, and methanol, in the gastrointestinal tract. Although shown to be safe, the released phenylalanine can lead to disturbances in individuals who are phenylketonuric.

  • Acesulfame
    Acesulfame was approved by the FDA in 1988 as an alternative sweetener. Acesulfame is 200 times sweeter than sucrose. It is not digested and contributes no energy to the diet.

  • Sugar alcohols
    The sugar alcohols sorbitol, mannitol, and xylitol are absorbed or metabolized to glucose more slowly than are simple sugars. They are often marketed to diabetic diets, but contribute to energy and affect blood glucose levels.

  • Alitame
    Alitame, or Aclame™, is formed from two amino acids, L-aspartic acid and D-alanine, and is ca. 2000 times sweeter than sucrose.

  • D-t agatose
    D-Tagatose is a compound derived from lactose and is equal to sucrose in sweetness but with only half its energy value.

  • Sucralose
    Sucralose is 800 times sweeter than sucrose. Sucralose is a nonnutritive, high-intensity sweetener made from a process that begins with sucrose. It is a freeflowing, water-soluble white crystalline powder that, on average, is ca. 600 times sweeter than sugar. Sucralose is being approved for use in baked goods, baking mixes, nonalcoholic beverages, chewing gum, coffee and tea products, confections and frostings, fats and oils, frozen dairy desserts and mixes, fruit and water ices, gelatins, puddings and fillings, jams and jellies, milk products, processed fruits and fruit juices, sugar substitutes, sweet sauces, and toppings and syrups. It can also be used as a tabletop sweetener, i.e., added directly to foods by consumers.

  • Sucralose is marketed under the brand name Splenda®. Sucralose breaks down into small amounts of 1,6-dichlorofructose, a chemical that has not been adequately tested in humans. FDA's approval is based on its finding that sucralose is safe for human consumption.

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Last modified: Monday, 27 February 2012, 10:56 AM