Artificial Sweeteners And Sweetening Agents - Practice Questions & MCQ

These are the chemical compounds which give a sweetening effect to the food and enhance its odour and flavour. Sugars such as sucrose, fructose, and lactose are the most widely used natural sweetening agents. However, excess consumption of sugar leads to many diseases such as diabetes, obesity, tooth decay and coronary heart disease. Artificial sweeteners are another type of food additive which are much more sweeter than sugar and non-nutritive in nature and are used as substitutes for sugar in foods and beverages, especially soft drinks. Some examples of artificial sweetening agents are saccharin, aspartame, cyclamates, alitame, dulcin and sucralose, etc.
Aspartame is the most successful and widely used artificial sweetener. It is roughly 100 times as sweet as cane sugar. It is the methyl ester of dipeptide formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine. The use of aspartame is limited to cold foods and soft drinks because it is unstable at cooking temperatures. Alitame is a high potency sweetener, although it is more stable than aspartame, the control of the sweetness of food is difficult while using it. Sucralose is a trichloro derivative of sucrose. Its appearance and taste are like sugar. It is stable at cooking temperature. It does not provide calories.