Under the global trend of sugar control, natural sweeteners have gradually gained favor from businesses and consumers. Data from the Mintel database shows that in the ten years from 2010 to 2020, the proportion of natural sweeteners added has increased year by year, from 8.16% in 2010 to 29.41% in 2020.
Among natural sweeteners, sweeteners obtained through plant extracts are mostly 200 times or more sweet than sucrose. Sugar alcohols or rare sugar sweeteners obtained through biological fermentation are multiple times sweeter than sucrose.
In 1937, cyclamate was invented, with a sweetness of 30 to 50 times that of sucrose. In 1965, aspartame was invented, with a sweetness of about 200 times that of sucrose. In 1967, acesulfame potassium was invented, with a sweetness of about 200 times as sweet as sucrose. In 1976, sucralose was invented, which is about 600 times as sweet as sucrose.
With the rapid development of chemical technology, natural sweeteners such as xylitol and erythritol have also been extracted from various natural substances by scientists.
Zhu Danpeng, a Chinese food industry analyst, said, "There are many substitutes for sweeteners, and erythritol is an upgraded version of aspartame.
Artificial sweeteners: saccharin, cyclamate, Advantame (aspartame derivative), acesulfame potassium, sucralose, neotame, alitame;
Natural sweeteners: steviol glycosides, monk fruit extract mogroside, glycyrrhizinate, thaumatin.
Sugar alcohol: erythritol, mannitol, maltitol, xylitol, lactitol, sorbitol, isomaltulose.
Nowadays, most businesses have gradually shifted from using single sweeteners to "natural + artificial" compound sweeteners.
The main artificial high-intensity sweeteners used are sucralose and acesulfame potassium.
Natural high-intensity sweeteners are mainly steviol glycosides and mogrosides, and sugar alcohols are mainly erythritol.
Reference
[1].Liu, H., et al. (2018). Antiglycation and antioxidant activities of mogroside extract from Siraitia grosvenorii (Swingle) fruits.
[2].Wiebe, N., et al. (2011). A systematic review on the effect of sweeteners on glycemic response and clinically relevant outcomes.
