What Potential Raw Materials Should Be Paid Attention To When Sugar Substitutes Approach The Baking Market?

From the Zero sugar beverage at the Central position in the supermarket to the options of sugar substitutes launched by milk tea and coffee shops, to a variety of snacks with sugar substitutes marked with "Zero sugar" and "zero calories", sugar substitutes have set off a boom in the food industry in recent years.

In the baking industry, there has also been a baking boom in China in recent years. Baked goods are becoming more popular, the baking market is divided, and consumption is growing. In the future, China's demand for sugar in the baking industry will also burst into greater potential, which will also promote the segmentation and quality upgrading of baking sugar. The combination of baking and sugar substitutes will also become one of the development trends in the baking industry.

In this article, we focus on the potential sugar substitutes.

Stevioside 

Stevioside is a glycoside compound derived from Stevia leaves. It has the characteristics of high sweetness and low calories. Its sweetness is 200-300 times that of sucrose, its calorie is only 1/300 of that of sucrose. There are many kinds of stevioside, mainly including stevioside and rebaudioside.

However, stevia has a certain aftertaste, so Stevia is generally mixed with other sugar substitutes. Or separate RebaudiosideA(RA95、RA80、RA50) stevia, which tastes sweeter but not bitter. Such products can replace 15-25% of the sugar in beverages.

In addition to Reba, rebaudioside also includes RebB、RebC、RebD、RebE and RebM. The content of REB m and REB D in leaves is very low, but they have better sweetness, no bitterness, and taste very similar to sugar. Many companies are also committed to developing these two types of products.

For example, Amyris can convert sucrose into RebM by genetically modifying yeast strain; Sweeten successfully transformed the molecules in Stevia leaves into stevia REB m and REB d with enzymes; Cargill adopts Baker's yeast fermentation to obtain a large number of ever sweet, realizing a more sustainable commercial production mode of REB m and REB D.

Stevioside has high thermal stability. It can be heated to 200 ℃ during the whole baking process and still maintain its stability. Stevia glycosides are neither fermented nor browning in the baking process, which can well maintain the product flavor and reduce heat, making it possible to extend the shelf life of the product and broaden the application field of baking. However, due to its cost and taste, it also needs to be mixed with other sugar substitutes, such as erythritol and Momordica grosvenorii.

According to Chinese laws and regulations, stevia glycosides are used in the baking field, mainly in cakes, biscuits, and cocoa products. Meanwhile, in 2016, glucosyl stevioside was approved by the health commission as a food additive, which can be prepared into the essence for food and used in all kinds of foods (except for food categories in table B.1 of gb2760-2014). The dosage is appropriate for production needs. The raw material is Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves. The stevia glycosides extracted from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves are glucosylated by enzyme method and then evaporated, concentrated, and spray dried to obtain a food additive glucose-based Stevia glycosides.