What are the types of sweeteners in food additives?

Oct 03 2020

Food additives are known as the soul of the modern food industry. Its appearance has brought many benefits to food work, such as preventing deterioration, improving organs, maintaining nutrition, and facilitating supply. As a kind of food additives, sweeteners have a wide range of uses. No matter in food processing, health preservation, baking and other fields, you will see them. Here is a brief introduction to several types of sweeteners.

Regarding the classification of sweeteners, generally speaking, they will be classified from three perspectives. The first classification can be based on the source of extraction. It is usually divided into two categories. One is natural sweeteners, such as glucose, fructose, Sucrose, maltose, etc.; one type is synthetic sweeteners, such as saccharin, sodium saccharin, sodium cyclamate, etc.

The second classification is based on its chemical structure, and it is also classified into two categories, one is sugar sweeteners, such as maltose, lactose, starch sugar, etc.; the other is non-sugar sweeteners, natural sweeteners And synthetic sweeteners belong to this category. What needs to be explained here is that the sugar sweeteners here generally refer to the long-term consumption of nutrients such as glucose, fructose, and sucrose, which are essentially food materials.

The third category is to distinguish from the nutritional value, and is divided into nutritive sweeteners and non-nutritive sweeteners.

4. At present, the category recognized by the food industry is divided into natural sweeteners and synthetic sweeteners. Natural sweeteners, as the name suggests, are extracted from natural sources, usually extracted from plants. So far, what is known is that the extracts of natural sweeteners include steviol glycosides and licorice. The artificial sweeteners are synthesized through modern biochemical technology. Artificial synthetic sweeteners often appear as sodium saccharin and aspartyl phenylalanine methyl ester (also known as sweetener, Spartame)

Although there are many types of sweeteners, in terms of nutritional value and application, stevia can stand out as the "king of sweeteners". In terms of sweetness, the sweetness of stevia is 200-300 times that of sucrose. One thing to mention is that stevia contains phytochemicals quercetin, kaempferol, apigenin and chlorogenic acid, which all contribute to heart health and weight control.