Pressure on food and beverage companies to reduce sugar-derived calories continues to intensify due to the obesity and diabetes epidemics and, more recently, taxation and labeling requirements. Synthetic and natural non-caloric sweetener substitution for sugars is increasingly employed to enable the desired caloric reduction. However, such sweeteners consistently fall short of sugar taste quality. There are four reasons for this: off-tastes such as bitter, metallic, licorice-like, etc.; temporal issues, i.e., delayed sweetness onset or sweetness linger; adaptation/ desensitization effects; and body or mouthfeel shortcomings. Approaches for the mitigation of these effects were discussed. Use of enhancers of sugar sweetness is a second approach to reduce calories. The current state of use of positive allosteric modulators (PAMs) as well as other enhancers were also discussed.
Grant E DuBois, Ph.D., Consultant, Sweetness Technologies, LLC speaking on “Replication of Sugar Taste and Modulators-Enhancers” at the 2018 Sweetener Systems Conference.
