Chemistry of Food Sweeteners

This review delves into the chemistry of food sweeteners and provides a holistic classification based on chemistry and intensity of sweetness. Unique in this research is the combination of the sweeteners’ chemistry, regulation, and food usage aiming at finding the most suitable sweeteners based on food type and/or processing conditions that can meet consumers’ needs. Twenty intense sweeteners were studied for their chemistry, food use, stability, and possible health implications out of which 7 were found to be from natural sources with the characteristics of sweetness intensity ranging from 30 to 300,000 times sweetness as sucrose, including Thaumatin, Tagatose, Cyclamate, Advantame, Glucose, Dulcine, Neotame, Acesulfame-K, Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone Aspartame, Alitame. Tied by their characteristic sweetness which ranges from 0.3 to 1.8 times the sweetness of sucrose, 22 Bulk sweeteners were also studied for their chemistry, calorific provision, and method of extraction/production. The analytical procedure of food sweeteners was also studied. Also, the finding of this review shows how different sweeteners are treated differently in different countries with major regulation centralizing on Joint Committee on Food Additive (JECFA) Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) which provide information on the average consumption requirement and for use in food product.