Intense Sweeteners

Luis Fermı´n Capita´n Vallvey University of Granada, Granada, Spain

I. INTRODUCTION

Sweetness of taste plays a preponderant role in food

preference. Several food ingredients stimulate the

sensation of sweetness by interacting with taste recep-

tor cells in the mouth. The sweetening power of these

ingredients varies: (a) with the properties of the food

system, temperature, physical state, and the presence

of other flavors, and (b) with characteristics of the

person, such as genetics, health status, and age. There are many different sweeteners which can be

grouped into three main types: (a) sugars (refined

sugars, sucrose, fructose, glucose, dextrose, maltose,

etc.), (b) sugar replacements, polyols, or sugar

alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, isomalt, etc.),

and (c) intense sweeteners (saccharin, aspartame,

acesulfame-K, sucralose, etc.). The two first groups

are nutritive sweeteners, include sweeteners with

sweetening power near or inferior to sucrose, and

add functional properties to foods through their

effects on sensory, physical, microbiological, and

chemical characteristics. The relationship between sweetness response and

concentration is different for each group. In general,

polyols fit a linear model with a slope lower than 1 (the

slope of sucrose); that is, they achieve the same

maximal intensity as sucrose but have a lower sweet-

ness potency (1). On the other hand, intense sweeteners

approach the maximal sweetness response asymptoti-

cally; thus, their potency is highly concentration

dependent (2).