Sucralose

This sweetener was first obtained in 1976 by modifying sucrose by Tate & Lyle.

Taste


Sucralose is on the list of high-intensity sweeteners: it is sweeter than sugar 600 times. Its sweet taste gives a number of advantages over other sweeteners. Firstly, it is perceived by man as habitual, very similar to the taste of ordinary sugar. Other intense sweeteners have uncharacteristic sugar flavors, demanding consumers may refuse to use such products. In order to maintain market share, it is necessary to produce these sweeteners not in pure form, but in a mixture with reagents that mask or smoothen the aftertaste. Secondly, sucralose in the products sweetened by it behaves identically to sugar: its sweet taste does not change with time. This significantly increases the acceptable shelf life of food products. It should be taken into account that sucralose, unlike sugar, is not a preservative, but it combines perfectly with many preservatives. Thirdly, the sweetness of sucralose is not so high as to be an obstacle to the preparation of homogeneous dry mixtures using technological equipment commonly used in the food industry.


Stability


Sucralose is highly chemically inert. It does not interact with most of the ingredients used in the food industry, such as preservatives, stabilizers, flavors, flavor enhancers, thickeners in a wide range of acidity environments. Sucralose retains its properties at high temperatures, non-hygroscopic. This allows you to create on its basis sweetener compositions with the addition of the so-called. volume components: erythritol, fructose. Especially it should be noted that this sweetener is not affected by the live crops that are present, for example, in dairy products. Sucralose is not hygroscopic, as a result of which the storage conditions are not as stringent as, for example, for sugar, fructose or sorbitol.


Solubility


Sucralose is perfectly soluble in water: 283 g / l (20 ° C). This quality makes it possible to use it in technological processes using aqueous solutions in the production of final products, particularly beverages.


Zero Caloric Value


The FDA (United States Food and Drug Administration) has included sucralose in the list of five zero-calorie sweeteners that are eligible for the label "Generally Recognized as Safe." Of these, only sucralose and aspartame have no restrictions on their application to certain types of food industry. The energy value of sucralose is zero, since this sweetener does not enter into metabolic processes in the human body and is excreted completely in an unchanged state. Therefore, it is an excellent component for diabetic and dietary nutrition. Sucralose does not lead to the release of insulin, does not enter the brain tissue, does not penetrate the placenta, does not become a component of breast milk. Sucralose is safe for diabetics, pregnant women, nursing mothers, children. The use of sucralose does not contribute to the development of dental caries.


Security


After the discovery of sucralose, researchers for a decade and a half have studied how safe it is for humans. It was sold only in 2001, a quarter of a century after the opening, when all possible doubts about its safety were eliminated. Currently, sucralose is used for the manufacture of foods and beverages in 80 countries, including the Russian Federation. Technical Regulations TR TS 029/2012 permits the use as a food additive E955 sucralose.


Consumption norms


In 1990, the World Health Organization established an acceptable daily intake rate of sucralose, equal to 15 mg per 1 kg of human body weight. This norm is also approved and adopted by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.