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A Closer Look at
SWEETENERS
T
oday’s consumers are demanding products
with less sugar — but all of the taste — and
are looking to purchase and consume more
natural, simple products. These trends, along with
growing concerns of rising obesity rates (especially
among children), have put a spotlight on sweeteners
used in food and drink applications.
There are several different types of sweeteners to choose
from when developing new products, and now, as
more inventive multi-sweetener blends are being used
in food and drink applications, it’s not unusual to see
three or four different sweeteners in a single product.
This added complexity means it’s now more important
than ever for product developers to understand the
options for sweeteners available for their products and
the taste and flavor impact of those choices. It can be a
sticky situation for consumers and developers alike to
sort through all of this variety.
Story continues inside...
A Closer Look at Sweeteners [continued from cover]
It’s now more important
than ever for product
developers to understand
the options for sweeteners
available for their products
and the taste and flavor
impact of those choices.
It can be a sticky situation
for consumers and
developers alike to sort
through all of this variety.
FONA International Beverage Scientist Trina Murray understands
how difficult selecting and flavoring with sweeteners can be. She
works with a variety of sweeteners as she helps develop flavor
solutions for beverage customers. We asked her to walk us through
the basics of several different types of sweeteners and the unique
flavoring characteristics of each. Here’s what she had to say:
SUGAR/SUCROSE
This traditional sweetener system remains the gold standard for
sweetness today. It is applicable across a wide range of applications,
providing a broad sweetness intensity curve and full mouthfeel.
Flavoring suggestion: Excellent with all types of flavors.
HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP (HFCS)
HFCS is created through enzymatic processing of corn syrup
to increase the fructose content, making it sweeter. The result is
a product similar in sweetness to sucrose. HFCS is very stable,
but lacks some of the body/mouthfeel that sucrose provides. In
the 1970’s, HFCS largely replaced sucrose as the sweetener for
carbonated soft drinks because of its cost effectiveness, but recent
consumer interest in natural has led some soft drink manufacturers
to revert back to sugar. This spring, for example, Pepsi announced
that its limited-edition Pepsi Throwback soda sweetened with cane
sugar instead of HFCS would become a permanent offering.
Flavoring suggestion: Clean sweetness profile makes it
applicable across a broad range of flavors.
Contributor
Trina Murray,
Beverage Scientist
Trina Murray works
primarily with tea,
coffee and juice
projects, building relationships with customers
and helping meet their flavor needs. Trina has
additional experience working with dairy and
performance nutrition. She is also a member of
our Flavor University® faculty. Trina has a B.S.
in chemistry and microbiology from University
College Cork, Ireland.
AGAVE SYRUP AND BROWN RICE SYRUP
With the rising trend of natural products, nutritive sweeteners such
as agave and brown rice syrups, have gained popularity. The biggest
advantage for these two syrups is their low glycemic indices do
not produce the same insulin spike associated with sucrose. These
sweeteners are not without their disadvantages, however. Strong
flavor characteristics, cost challenges, and overall level of sweetness
delivered may limit their feasibility.
Flavoring suggestion: Because of agave’s grassy and
slightly bitter flavor profile, choose flavors with less green
notes. For example, a ripe strawberry flavor rather than a
green strawberry flavor.
HIGH INTENSITY SWEETENERS (HIS)
Consumers want the taste of sugar without the calories, and
this is a difficult challenge for application scientists, as most
HIS do not deliver the whole package of sweetness, time
intensity, and mouthfeel.
should be removed from list of carcinogens. A bit of a stigma
still remains, however, so saccharin is not very widely used in
the U.S. except as a packet sweetener.
Acesulfame Potassium Salt (Ace K). Approximately
200 times sweeter than sugar, Ace K has an upfront sweetness
which dissipates fairly quickly. Because of this attribute, it is
most commonly used in combination with other sweeteners,
providing the upfront sweetness profile that is lacking in
most other HIS. Ace K can withstand high temperatures, but
delivers a metallic off-taste in some applications.
Sucralose. Sucralose is a chlorinated sugar (sugar is altered
so three chlorine atoms replace three hydroxyl groups) and is
about 600 times sweeter than sucrose. It is pH and heat stable,
allowing it to be used in baked and fried foods, in addition
to beverages and other products. Sucralose has a delayed
sweetness onset, which lingers significantly longer than other
HIS. This makes it compatible with functional beverages
which often have lingering bitter off-notes. The lasting
sweetness of sucralose helps mask these characteristics.
Flavoring suggestion: Works well with fruit flavors, as
Flavoring suggestion: Citrus type flavors work well
it enhances the flavor profile, increasing mouthfeel.
because the acidity helps reduce the powdery
Aspartame. Aspartame is also about 200 times sweeter
than sugar. It breaks down in heat, so it’s not well-suited for
applications that are exposed to high levels of heat over a long
period of time. Products containing aspartame carry warnings
on the label because some people can’t digest the amino acid
phenylalanine contained in this high intensity sweetener.
Flavoring suggestion: Best-suited for fruit and cola
flavors because aspartame has a relatively clean profile.
Saccharin. Three hundred times sweeter than sugar, and
able to withstand heat, it is the largest volume, lowest cost
HIS used in the world. In 1977 there was a cancer scare with
saccharin, but in 2000 National Institutes of Health said it
sweet linger.
Stevia. Extracted from the leaves of the S. rebiana plant,
stevia is the first natural high-intensity sweetener. It is
approximately 250-300 times sweeter than sucrose. Stevia
extracts have a lingering licorice or metallic flavor associated
with them. This is challenging from an application perspective,
as these off-notes can compete with the flavor system that is
being applied. Masking flavors have been developed to help
cover these off-notes.
Flavoring suggestion: The licorice/anise note of stevia
is less apparent when used with flavors like cola,
rootbeer and ginger.
Here’s a look at how food and beverage scientists
MASK THE TOP OFF-NOTES
ASSOCIATED WITH SWEETENERS.
OFF-NOTE
Bitter
Metallic
Anise Notes
Powdery
Sweetness Linger
MASKING SUGGESTION
Flavors with an inherent bitterness,
such as grapefruit.
Cola or fruit type flavors.
Root beer, cola or spice
type flavors.
Citrus type
flavors with higher
acidity to help cut the
lingering sweetness.
EXPERTISE YOU CAN TRUST
Let FONA’s flavor and product development experts help you
find the sweetener solution that works best for your particular
product, while working through the unique set of characteristics
and challenges presented. We understand how to integrate the
complexities of flavor with your brand development, technical
requirements and regulatory needs to deliver a complete taste
solution.
CONTACT OUR SALES SERVICE DEPARTMENT
at 630.578.8600 to request a flavor sample or visit
www.fona.com.
Faces of FONA
NEW HIRES
Tim Michelotti, Food Scientist
Tim has 10 years of experience in the food and
beverage industry — five in the performance
nutrition industry in product development for
powders, bars and RTDs and five in the juice
industry as a food scientist, completing research
projects and pilot testing new equipment. At
FONA, Tim is a member of our Beverage team,
assisting with flavor applications for both dry
and liquid mixes. He has a B.S. in dietitics from
Bradley University.
Award
Joseph Slawek Wins
Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Kelly Cole, Account Executive
Kelly works closely with our customers in the
northeast and central United States, delivering
excellence in service as she focuses primarily on
their beverage flavoring needs. She comes to
FONA with extensive experience in the flavor
industry, having most recently been a global
account manager. She has bachelor degrees in
both business administration and chemistry from
The University of Cincinnati.
President’s Corner
Being honored as the Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur of the Year for Distribution/
Manufacturing in the Midwest and accepting
the award on behalf of all of us at FONA has
been a truly special experience. I am grateful
and indebted to God, my family, our wonderful
customers, my coworkers and our community.
We believe being honored with this prestigious
award supports our founding vision that
success comes from a dedication to meaningful
connections with each other, our customers and
our communities. My coworkers’ commitment to
this vision of excellence has been extraordinary. It
is such a blessing to come to work each day with
people I love and respect.
We extend deep thanks to all of our customers.
This award represents the trust you have placed
in us and the partnerships we have built. This
award — and FONA’s successes — would not be
possible without you.
With thanks,
Joe Slawek
Chairman and CEO
We are pleased to announce our Chairman & CEO Joseph
Slawek was honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur
Of The Year Award® for Distribution/Manufacturing in the
Midwest. As a recipient of the world’s most prestigious
business award for entrepreneurs, Joe is recognized as one of
the country’s top minds and success stories in business today.
Awards are given to entrepreneurs in Illinois and Indiana
who demonstrate extraordinary success in the areas of
innovation, financial performance and personal commitment
to their businesses and communities. Joe now advances to the
national competition in November.
This distinction supports FONA’s founding belief that success
comes from pursuing excellence while connecting with our
employees, customers and communities in meaningful ways.
At the award ceremony (pictured above), Slawek said:
“Recognition of entrepreneurial excellence in the workplace
encourages us all to be faithful, creative and responsible
individuals. It encourages us to develop character, to come
together as people and to profitably grow through the pursuit
of marketplace opportunities.”
Congratulations, Joe!
Fall Course Schedule
USA [GENEVA, ILLINOIS]
Flavor 101®
Sept. 12 - 13
Oct. 11 - 12
Join us at Flavor University this Fall!
Flavor University classes provide food professionals with a practical
understanding of the creation and use of flavors in food and beverage
product development. These complimentary classes fill quickly,
so register today!
Visit flavoruniversity.com or call 630.578.8600
for complete course details.
Top 10 Challenges of Flavor®
Sept. 26 - 27
Grain Flavor 201SM: Flavor Solutions
for Cereal and Snacks
Nov. 1 - 2
Beverage Flavor 201SM
Nov. 15 - 16
CANADA
Flavor 101®
Nov. 10, Montreal area
Excerpts from
Top 10 Challenges of Flavor®
Oct. 7, Toronto area
Flavor News is printed on 30%
post-consumer recycled paper.
Flavor News
Volume 40, August 2011
Published by FONA International Inc.
630.578.8600
www.fona.com
STAY IN THE LOOP
Keep up-to-date on our latest flavor events
and news. Send your e-mail address to
[email protected].
Joe Slawek wins Ernst & Young
Entrepreneur Of The Year®
A Closer Look at Sweeteners
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Geneva, IL 60134 USA
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