Chemical and Functional Properties of Food Saccharides

© 2004 by CRC Press LLC
Preface
In preparing this new book on food carbohydrates, I have looked for a formula to
distinguish it from titles already published. The team of contributors to this volume
presents modern developments in the field of food carbohydrates. The book is a
guide to the chemistry, biochemistry, and technology of food carbohydrates, and
because of the abundant scope of the data included, it can serve as a handbook of
carbohydrate chemistry.
As editor of this volume, I have tried to present food carbohydrates within a
wider context. Therefore, I invited as contributors not only food chemists and
technologists but also organic chemists, biochemists, a chemist theoretician, and one
M.D., an expert in human nutrition.
The contents of this book can be divided into the following areas:
Information on structure and reactivity of carbohydrates (Chapters 1, 2, 9, and
10). Chapter 1 presents the comprehensive structural chemistry of saccharides. It
includes a method of interconversion of open-chain structures into cyclic structures
as well as a collection of over 100 structures of mono-, oligo-, and polysaccharides
which are the most common in food chemistry and technology. Chapter 2 introduces
the reader to the chemistry of mono- and disaccharides, revealing the simplicity of
apparently unusual reaction pathways of carbohydrates. Only those reactions which
are essential in food chemistry and technology are covered in this chapter. Chapters
9 and 10 describe chemical reactivity and enzymatic conversions of high-molecular
carbohydrates, respectively.
Low-molecular carbohydrates: sources, modifications, and applications. The
production of sugar from sugar beet and sugar cane are discussed in Chapter 4,
together with applications of sucrose in nutrition. In Chapter 6, this presentation is
extended to honey. Currently, considerable attention is being paid to nonnutritional
applications of carbohydrates, including obtaining carbohydrates from nonagricultural
sources, such as seaweeds, for use in the food industry. Chapter 3 presents
chemical modifications of lower saccharides useful in food processing and as an
important source for designing products for nonnutritional applications. A similar
treatment of polysaccharides is presented in Chapter 19. Chapter 21 focuses on
carbohydrates as a source of energy.
Carbohydrates and functional properties of food. The role of carbohydrates in
controlling the texture of food is discussed in Chapter 11. Carbohydrates’ roles in
the flavor and aroma of food is presented in detail in Chapter 18. Sweetening is one
of the most common applications of carbohydrates. A modern theory of sweetening
is developed in Chapter 5.
Selected problems of the carbohydrate analytics. These are limited to polysaccharides.
Molecular characteristics of polysaccharides are discussed in Chapters 22
and 23.