Title: Alternative Sweeteners

158 Pearson
blends can provide reduced-calorie products with good taste characteristics (38–
40) at lower cost.
The blending of either sodium saccharin (NS) or calcium saccharin (CS)
with aspartame (APM) is an example of the economic advantage that can be
achieved without attendant loss of taste aesthetics. Tables 5 and 6 display the
lack of increased bitterness as saccharin is raised to 30% of the saccharin/aspartame
blend, even when matching a 10% sucrose solution. The economic incentive
is dramatic because the 30% saccharin/70% aspartame blends have a cost ranging
between one third to one half that of aspartame alone.
Increasing the saccharin content to 70% did result in increased bitterness;
therefore, there is a limit to how much saccharin can be formulated into a blend.
Substitution of the calcium ion for the sodium ion gave equal sweetness with
marginally less bitterness.
A second approach to the use of saccharin is the use of ‘‘masking agents.’’
A popular tabletop sweetener uses cream of tartar and dextrose as masking agents
(41). Many of these are described in reviews by Bakal (35) and Daniels (42),
with new versions continually being added to the list (43).
Most food and beverage literature assessing the improved taste of saccharin
blends has focused on sodium saccharin. Recently, the calcium salt of saccharin
has been found to possess a shorter, cleaner aftertaste with less bitterness (44).
In blends with other sweeteners, calcium saccharin may offer improved taste
aesthetics.
No single alternative sweetener available today closely matches the full
taste attributes of natural sugar. Moreover, these alternative sweeteners all have
one or more additional disadvantages such as poor solution stability, high cost,
or objectionable taste characteristics. By blending saccharin salts with other
sweeteners, the food chemist can economically provide low-calorie foods and
beverages with optimized taste characteristics while minimizing any single sweetener’s
weakness (45). This multiple sweetener concept is more completely described
in Chapter 24.
VI. STABILITY AND SHELF-LIFE
In its bulk form, saccharin and its salts show no detectable decomposition over
periods as long as several years (44). Another major advantage of saccharin and
its salts is high stability in aqueous solutions over a wide pH range. With saccharin,
the food and beverage formulator does not have to compromise taste aesthetics
by altering the pH to minimize sweetener hydrolysis. Thus, taste is maintained
over a longer shelf-life.
In 1952, DeGarmo and coworkers studied the stability of saccharin in aqueous
solutions (46). They found that saccharin solutions buffered at pHs ranging