Replacing sugar and fat

“Low-calorie and sugar-free products can be part of a healthy diet, as supported by the [American Dietetic Assn.’s] updated position statement. Research shows consumers find such products helpful and would like to see more developed,” says Lyn Nabors, executive vice president of the Calorie Control Council.

Like fat replacement, sugar replacement attempts to match various properties of sugar. If only sweetness is needed, there is a number of replacements that can do the job.

Saccharin is the granddaddy of the lot, dating back all the way to 1879. It’s available in three forms: sodium saccharin, which is highly soluble; acid saccharin; and calcium saccharin, which is used in reduced sodium products. It’s 300 to 500 times sweeter than sucrose. It has been largely replaced in processed foods by newer products that have little of the bitterness associated with saccharin, but it remains a popular coffee sweetener in packets.

Acesulfame potassium – acesulfame K or ace-K -- is good for foods that are not baked or heated above 200°F. Ace-K is 200 times sweeter than sugar. It is sold under the brand name Sunett by Nutrinova Inc. (www.nutrinova-na.com), Somerset, N.J., a business unit of Celanese AG. Although a key patent expires in March, Nutrinova also holds two patents on intermediates in the manufacturing process of ace-K, which are valid in the U.S. until 2008, and more than 30 additional patents on the processes.

FDA first approved acesulfame potassium for dry uses in 1988 and has increased product approvals for use in about 20 product categories in the U.S. These include chewing gum, candy, desserts, baked goods, yogurt, gelatin and as a tabletop sweetener. Acesulfame potassium is approved for use in more than 4,000 products in about 90 countries.

Aspartame, best known as tabletop sweetener Equal or NutraSweet, was discovered by G.D. Searle & Co. in 1965 and introduced as a sweetener in 1981. It now is now sold by a number of companies, including the Nutrasweet Co. (www.nutrasweet.com) and the once-related Merisant Co. (www.Merisant.com), both based in Chicago. Aspartame is about 200 times as sweet as sucrose and delivers less than a half-calorie per gram.

A new form of aspartame is claimed in a patent from Ajinomoto Food Ingredients (www.ajiUSA.com), Chicago, in the form of a crystal instead of an amorphous material that requires blending. According to inventors, the crystal form is of high purity and stability.

New varieties of Kool-Aid Jammers carry the American Diabetes Assn. seal on the front and both sucralose and acesulfame potassium in the ingredient panel. They have just 10 calories per pouch instead of 60 calories in the varieties sweetened with high-fructose corn syrup.

The newest sweeteners

NutraSweet Co.'s new sweetener, neotame, was approved by FDA in 2002, and is some 7,000 to 13,000 times as sweet as sucrose. In just two years, its use has exploded, according to Ihab Bishay, senior vice president of research, with use in Ice Breakers breath mints, Roman Meal low-carb bread, Mayfield Dairy milk products and a number of other products, both internationally and domestically.

“It’s often blended with sugar or high fructose corn syrup to reduce cost or improve the flavor and sweetness profile,” says Bishay. “It can be used with bulking agents to provide sweetness at very low levels. It doesn't have to carry an information statement for phenylketonurics, as the product doesn't metabolize to phenylalanine. It provides an intense, clean sweetness at very low levels.”

Sucralose is sold by Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Nutritionals LLC (www.splenda.com) under the brand name Splenda, but is manufactured by London-based Tate & Lyle Plc. It is 600 times as sweet as sucrose and is unabsorbed by the body.

Recent work by Johnson & Johnson scientists have looked into combinations of sucralose with fiber. But, says William Chapello, principal scientist for McNeil Nutritionals in New Brunswick, N.J., the American public has a problem tolerating fiber. He and associates at McNeil developed a product that included high intensity sweeteners and inulin, with the latter helping the digestive tract accept fiber.

Chapello also told of a product called Sugar Blend, which contains sugar and Splenda. It is designed to replace the sugar in products such as baked goods at about 40 percent of the amount called for in a recipe. “It will have the full sweetness of sugar, and enough of the technical functions of sugar to produce moist, flavorful baked goods,” he says. Just introduced during the last quarter of 2004, it’s too soon to tell how the product will fare, but, says Chapello, “the initial demand is good.”

Bulking up

While it’s not much of a sweetener, fiber replaces the bulking quality of sugar. Louise Slade and Harry Levine, research fellows at Kraft Foods Inc. (www.kraft.com), Northfield, Ill., are using a type-3 resistant starch to reduce the calories and improve baking characteristics for cookies and crackers. “Because cookies are generally high calorie items, the addition of fiber can make a major difference in the total formulation, encompassing sugar, fat and other ingredients,” says Levine.