Title: Alternative Sweeteners

328 Le and Mulderrig
deal of time on the rotary grill. This can lead to burning or charring of the sausage
casing, which makes its appearance unappealing to the customer. It is the sugar
or corn syrup used in the cooked sausage that is caramelizing and causing the
charring. Sorbitol does not caramelize as do the sugars or corn syrups, so the
cooked sausage will not char on the grill.
Sorbitol enhances the flavor of the cooked sausage. It improves the reddish
color of the sausage and the color stability. It has also been shown to reduce the
potential for white slime bacterial growth that occurs with older frankfurters (11).
The previously mentioned benefits make the cooked sausage more appealing
to the consumer. The addition of sorbitol to the cooked sausage also benefits
the manufacturer in that it increases the ease of peeling off the sausage casing
after the sausage has been made, such as is done in the skinless frankfurter manufacturing
process.
8. Shredded Coconut
The pleasant, sweet taste and hygroscopicity of sorbitol protects shredded coconut
from loss of moisture. Because it is nonvolatile, sorbitol has a more permanent
conditioning effect than other humectants.
9. Beverages and Liquid Products
Sorbitol has many advantages for a wide range of liquid products. It can be used
in carbonated and noncarbonated beverages, nutritional drinks, and pharmaceutical
liquids (antacid and antibiotic suspensions, cough syrups, etc).
Sorbitol solution acts as a bodying agent because of its viscosity of approximately
110 centipoise (cps). It improves the mouth-feel of the finished product
by eliminating a watery or thin organoleptic sensation. Sorbitol enhances flavor
and imparts a characteristic sweet, cool taste that is not cloying.
Sorbitol exhibits stability and chemical inertness when in contact with
many chemical combinations of ingredients. Sorbitol solution can be used alone
or with other liquid vehicle components, if necessary, for enhanced solvent power
or special taste and mouth-feel effects. With sorbitol solution as the vehicle, almost
any medicament can be used. Sensitive, insoluble active ingredients such
as vitamins or antibiotics retain their potency in oral liquids containing sorbitol
solution, USP. Sorbitol can also act as a cryoprotectant and therefore lowers the
freezing point of water. This ability gives the formulators the means to protect
liquid pharmaceutical preparations from low-temperature damage in storage or
transit (12).
Sorbitol can serve as a crystallization inhibitor for liquid sugar systems. In
any concentrated solution of pure solids or suspension systems, crystallization
can occur. When crystallization is localized on the threads of a bottle, the cap
may become difficult or impossible to remove. The condition is known as