Sweetener development history and industry review.

There are many kinds of sweeteners, mainly divided by production method and sweetness factor.

Sugar consumption not only provides the body with essential energy, but also stimulates the release of dopamine in the brain, which makes people feel good. Who defines sugars as endogenous and free sugars. The sugars in fresh fruits, vegetables and milk are called endogenous sugars and have no adverse effects on health. Free sugars refer to monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by manufacturers, cooks or consumers, as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices, mainly in the form of sucrose, fructose and glucose.

According to WHO recommendations, adults should consume no more than 5% of their daily calories from free sugars (2015 guidelines). With the social attention to the health problems caused by sugar, sweeteners (sugar substitutes) have entered a period of rapid development. The global sweetener market is more mature and rich in types, which can be roughly divided into artificial sweeteners and natural sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners are those produced by chemical synthesis that are hundreds of times sweeter than sucrose. Natural sweeteners can be divided into two categories according to different production methods. One type of sweetener is extracted by plants, and its sweetness is more than 200 times that of sucrose or higher. The other type is sugar alcohols or rare sugar sweeteners obtained by biological fermentation, whose sweetness ratio is lower than that of sucrose. Their monosaccharide or polysaccharide structure makes a little heat released during digestion and decomposition.

High sweetener cost performance is outstanding, low sweetener taste richer.

Because of the different raw materials or molecular structure, various sweeteners have different tastes. The early saccharin and cyclamate were inferior in taste, while the new artificial sweeteners such as aspartame, acesulfame and sucralose are pure and close to the taste of sucrose. Natural sweeteners such as stevioside and Mogroside are extracted from plants, giving them their unique flavor. Erythritol has a cool taste in the mouth, so it is often used in drinks such as sparkling water.

Artificial synthetic sweeteners are usually limited by the amount of human tolerance. Saccharin and saccharin have been banned in most countries mainly in the United States due to the risk of cancer. At present, saccharin and saccharin are not banned in China, but the amount of saccharin is limited and it is forbidden to add saccharin in infant food. Aspartame, a third-generation artificial sweetener, is not suitable for baked goods because of its poor heat resistance and is not suitable for people with phenylketonuria. Among the natural sweeteners, only stevioside has a dosage limit of 4mg/kg. Sugar alcohols and rare sweeteners have negligible caloric values, such as erythritol (0.2kal/g) and aloxone (0.4kal/g), because they are rarely utilized by the gut microbiota.

The choice of sweetener is mainly concerned about its cost performance (price sweet ratio), mainly to the unit sweetness price as a measure standard. The artificial sweeteners with high sweetness ratio and the natural sweeteners extracted from plants have the highest cost performance ratio. The price-to-sweet ratio of Neutame is 0.06, which is very high price performance ratio. Sucralose is slightly lower than acesulfameae due to its high price per unit. Erythritol and aloxone are lower than other sweeteners because of their low sweetness ratio. Therefore, in practical application scenarios, erythritol with low sweet ratio is usually used with high sucralose, acesulva or stevioside, so as to achieve a balanced ratio of flavor and sweetness.

How is sweetener metabolized in human body?

One of the characteristics of sweeteners is low or no calories, mainly because their metabolism in the body is different from sucrose and other sugars that provide calories. Sucrose and maltose are decomposed and digested into monosaccharides by corresponding enzymes in the human body, and then transported to various tissues and cells for metabolism through the blood, releasing a large amount of energy. The metabolism of sweetener in the human body can be divided into two categories: 1) it penetrates into the blood circulation through the small intestine and is excreted through the urine through the kidney; 2) Through the intestinal tract, without any absorption or fermentation decomposition, directly excreted through feces.

Therefore, the metabolism of sweetener will not cause a rise in blood sugar, and the caloric value is much lower than that of sucrose. Erythritol and aloxone mostly enter the blood in the small intestine due to osmotic pressure, and are eventually excreted in the urine. A small part of the large intestine is fermented by the body's own flora. Aspartame's action on intestinal lipases and peptidases after entry into the body produces three common metabolites. In patients with phenylketonuria who lack the ability to metabolize phenylalanine, aspartame may lead to phenylalanine deposition and damage to the brain. Aspartame, which is currently used in Coca-Cola Diet drinks, is customised for people with phenylketonuria.

According to many tests conducted by JECFA, some unabsorbed cycetin was metabolized by intestinal microorganisms to produce cyclohexamine, which resulted in the occurrence of bladder cancer. Therefore, the use of cycetin has been banned in many countries, and saccharin has also been widely banned or restricted due to its carcinogenicity. At present, the mainstream sweetener in the market has no obvious harmful phenomenon to human body under the existing experimental verification, and can be safely used in food and beverage products on the basis of not exceeding human tolerance.

Sucralose

The fifth generation artificial sweetener has the same taste as sucrose.

Sucralose is also known as sucralose. In 1976, a new type of sweetener jointly developed and patented by Tyley Company and University of London was put into the market in 1988. It is the only functional sweetener with sucrose as raw material, and can reach the sweetness of sucrose about 600 times. Sucralose does not participate in metabolism in human body, human body absorption, caloric value is zero, is an ideal sweet substitute for diabetic people. In addition, sucralose can reduce the amount of acid produced by bacteria in the mouth and the adhesion of streptococcal cells on the tooth surface, which plays an effective role in anti-dental caries.

Sucralose is used in more than 400 foods, including carbonated beverages, beverages, sauces, baked goods, dairy products, and more. The main production process of sucralose includes single group protection and whole group protection. The whole group protection process is complex and has no industrial production value. Single group protection method through chemical method, the 6 carboxyl group on the glucose molecule in sucrose to form a single ester, and then through chlorination, depeptide group, purified sucralose. The key of this process is to prepare the chlorination of sucralose-6-acetate and sucralose-6-acetate, and the chlorination reagents mainly use sulfoxide chloride and trichloroethane.

Arcelormittal honey

The fourth generation artificial sweetener is widely used and used in combination.

Acesulfameae, also known as AK sugar, whose chemical name is potassium acetylsulfonate, is 200 times sweeter than sucrose, and its taste is similar to sugarcane. It does not participate in body metabolism, does not provide energy, and has no caries. It has high sweetness, good stability to heat and acid, and can produce strong synergistic effect when mixed with other sweeteners. It was invented in Germany in 1967, approved by the World Health Organization in 1978, and approved for use in food by the U.S. FDA in 1988.

In 1992, the Ministry of Health approved acesulfameae for use in food and beverage fields. In 1998, FDA approved the use in soft drinks, and aspartame 1:1 use has obvious synergistic effect. According to the Standard for the Use of Food Additives, the maximum use of beverages, frozen drinks, pastries, jams, preserves and other foods is 0.3g/kg. Domestic enterprises generally adopt double ketene synthesis method of Ann - sulphur trioxide honey, with amino sulfonic acid under triethylamine as catalyst and double ketene condensation reaction to produce acetyl amino sulfonic acid, using sulfur trioxide sulfonation, dehydration with potassium hydroxide and made the honey, the concentration, decolorization, crystallization, and drying the arcelormittal honey products.

Erythritol, sugar alcohol

Erythritol, the most popular natural fermented sweetener.

Erythritol, also known as prophytol and erythritol, is a kind of natural active substance widely existing in nature. The scientific name is 1,2,3, 4-butaneitol, the molecular formula is C4H1004, unscented white crystalline powder, easy to crystallize, soluble in water, high acid and heat stability. Erythritol is widely found in natural plants and organisms. Common fermented foods such as soy sauce and wine contain erythritol.

The sweetness was about 70% of sucrose and the heat was about 0.2kcal/g. In May 2008, ethroglucin was allowed to be used as needed. The main production methods of erythritol include chemical synthesis method, biological extraction method and microbial fermentation method. Due to the influence of production cost and economy, current industrial production enterprises use fermentation method to produce erythritol. Most of the microorganisms used are food-grade hypertonic yeasts. In our country, the fermentation strains used in the production of ethroglucin are defined as Candida lipolysis, Saccharomyces tubulospora and Saccharomyces trichospora. The process mainly takes starch as raw material, which is converted into erythritol by yeast fermentation, and then gets erythritol by separation, crystallization and drying. The conversion rate and by-product production rate of erythritol synthesis were different among different strains.

Arlo ketone sugar

Aloxone, a new generation of healthy sweetener.

D-allulose (D-allulose) is a C-3 heterotropic isomer of D-fructose, which is extremely rare in nature. A small amount of D-allulose is found in wheat, ratthorns, sugar beet molasses, sugar cane molasses and other substances. It can be obtained by the c-3 differential isomerization of D-fructose catalyzed by microbial derived ketose 3-differential isomerase.

D-aloxone crystal is white powder, no special smell, its molecular formula is C6H1206, high melting and boiling points, not easy to absorb moisture, easily soluble in water, is 70% of the sweetness of sucrose, heat is 0.4kcal/g, only 0.3% of sucrose. Aloxonlose is hardly metabolized and produces no energy when it passes through the human intestine. It is rarely fermented and utilized by intestinal microorganisms and can be used as an alternative sweetener. As a reductive hexanosaccharide, it can react with proteins or amino acids to improve food flavor, color and taste. A number of research results show that different arlo ketone sugar from sugar and other sweeteners, have the function of the control of obesity and diabetes, mainly through the regulation of fatty acid synthase in the liver and liver glucokinase activity to improve insulin secretion and blood sugar level, is a kind of with low calorie and health benefits of good functional sweeteners.

Stevioside and mogroside.

Stevioside: The main plant - derived natural sweetener.

Stevia extract (also known as "stevioside" or "stevia") is a natural sugar-free sweetener derived from the leaves of stevia. Stevia extract is about 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose and contains no calories. It is known as the "third generation natural zero calorie (zero calorie) healthy sugar source" in the world. It was introduced from South America by Japan in the 1970s.

There are many kinds of stevioside compounds. At present, more than 30 kinds of stevioside compounds have been found, mainly including the common stevioside and rebaud A, rebaud M, rebaud D, rebaud R and rebaud S, etc. In 2008, high purity stevioside and Reb A passed the GRAS safety certification in the United States. Since 2018, Reb M has been closest to sucrose in the sense of safety, and has gradually replaced Reb A to become the mainstream in the world.

At present, the extraction technologies of stevioside compounds that have been discovered mainly include hot water extraction, ultrasonic assisted extraction, enzymatic method, macroporous resin adsorption method, etc., among which macroporous resin adsorption method is the most widely used, and Rebdioside M is mainly obtained by genetic engineering technology. In 2020, the domestic production of stevia exceeded 9,700 tons and Rheinbio has a production capacity of 2,000 tons. The global stevia market size was approximately US $570 million in 2020 and is expected to reach around US $1 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 8.4%. According to the forecast, from 2020 to 2027, China will become the country with the fastest growth rate of stevia market, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.5%, followed by the United States (10.3%), Canada (9.1%) and other countries.

Mogroside: the highest quality natural plant extracted sweetener.

Luohan fruit extract (also known as "Luohan fruit sweet side" or "Luohan fruit sweet side") is a natural sugar-free sweetener extracted from the fruit of Luohan fruit, a vine plant native to Guilin. Its taste is very similar to sucrose, and it is the best sweetener among the natural plant sweeteners at present. Its active ingredients are rohanin IV and rohanin V. Its sweetness is about 150-300 times that of sucrose, and its heat is about 1/50 of that of sucrose.

In addition, as a medicine-food dual-use product, the extract of Luo Han fruit has medicinal effects such as clearing heat, relieving cough and moistening intestine, which is widely used in food, health products, medicine and cosmetics. Limited by planting environment, Guangxi is the largest fruit production area in China, in addition to Hunan, Jiangxi and other places also expanded. The production capacity of Lohan fruit glucoside in China is about 2,000 tons, mainly concentrated in Guangxi and Hunan provinces. The main production enterprises include Rhine Biological, Giffords Silohan Fruit Co., LTD., Hunan Huacheng Biological, Hunan Nanmo Biological, etc. The annual output of these leading enterprises is about 300 tons -400 tons. The global Luohan fruit market size was about 500 million Yuan in 2021 and is expected to reach 732 million Yuan by 2026, at a CAGR of about 5.3%.

Mogroside and stevioside are mostly used in the complex. In terms of the current application fields of complex sugar, there are more and more scenes for the mixed use of natural high-power sweeteners and natural low-power sweeteners in the food field. With the increasing substitution demand in the domestic table sugar field, the demand for stevioside and mogroside is growing significantly.

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