GLUCOSE-CONTAINING SWEETENING MIXTURE

Abstract

The invention relates to a glucose-containing sweetening mixture, comprising or consisting of glucose and at least one glucose-free sweetener, wherein the sweetening mixture has a sweetness between 3.0 and 5.0, in particular between 3.5 and 4.5. The invention further relates to a food product containing this sweetening mixture.

Claims

1. A glucose-containing sweetening mixture, comprising glucose and at least one glucose-free sweetener, wherein the sweetening mixture has a sweetness between 3.0 and 5.0.

2. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture has a calorific value of 13.0 to 16.0 kJ/g.

3. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture is free of monosaccharides and disaccharides.

4. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture is free of at least one of sucrose and fructose.

5. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the glucose-free sweetener is selected from sodium cyclamate, sodium saccharin, aspartame, acesulfame, aspartame-acesulfame salt, stevioside, neohesperidin DC, thaumatin, neotame, advantame, mogroside or any mixture thereof

6. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1 wherein: the sweetening mixture contains 94.96 wt.-% glucose, 4.2 wt.-% sodium cyclamate and 0.84 wt.-% acesulfame K, or the sweetening mixture contains 98.36 wt.-% glucose, 0.82 wt.-% aspartame and 0.82 wt.-% acesulfame K.

7. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture contains at least one calorie-free excipient.

8. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1 wherein the sweetening mixture exists as powder, syrup, or compressed tablet.

9. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture has a GSV value between 0.15 and 0.35, the GSV value being calculated according to the formula $\begin{array}{cc}\mathrm{GSV}=\frac{m_{\mathrm{Glue}}}{m_{\mathrm{total}}}/\mathrm{SK}& \left[\left[\left(I\right)\right]\right]\end{array}$ wherein m.sub.Glu is the mass of glucose or glucose equivalents contained in the sweetening mixture, wherein m.sub.total is the total mass of the sweetening mixture, and wherein SK is the sweetness of the sweetening mixture.

10. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture comprises between 40% and 60% of the glucose or glucose equivalents compared to that amount of sucrose that would be required to provide a comparable sweetness.

11. A food product comprising a glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1.

12. The food product according to claim 11, wherein the food product contains 5 to 20 g/kg of the sweetening mixture.

13. The food product according to claim 11, wherein the food product is a beverage.

14. The food product according to claim 11, wherein the food product is free of at least one of sucrose and fructose.

15. The food product according to claim 11, wherein the calorific value of the food product is 80 to 320 kJ/kg.

16. The food product according to claim 11, wherein the calorific value of the food product is 240 to 320 kJ/Kg.

17. The food product according to claim 11, wherein the food product contains 15 to 20 g/kg of the sweetening mixture.

18. The glucose-containing sweetening mixture according to claim 1, wherein the sweetening mixture has a sweetness between 3.5 and 4.5.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

EXAMPLE 1

Glucose-Containing Sweetening Mixtures According to the Invention

[0048] Testing compared to sucrose: In a series of tests, the sweetening mixtures shown in Table 1 below were tested and found to be equivalent in taste to a solution containing four times the amount of sucrose. The sweetening mixtures contain one sweetener (mixture No. 1-4) or two sweeteners (mixture No. 5-8).

[0049] For testing, a solution of 5 g of a sweetening mixture according to the invention was prepared in 300 mL of tap water.

TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Mix- Percent- Percent- ture age age Sweet- No. Sweetener 1 (wt.-%) Sweetener 2 (wt.-%) ness 1 Acesulfame K 1.58 — — 3.1 2 Aspartame 2.66 — — 4.7 3 Aspartame 2.40 — — 4.3 4 Stevia 1.34 — — 4.7 5* Stevia 0.80 Thaumatin 0.08 3.3 6* Acesulfame K 0.82 Aspartame 0.82 3.3 7* Acesulfame K 0.84 Sodium cyclamate 4.20 3.2 8 Aspartame 0.70 Sodium saccharin 0.35 3.3 *These mixtures were judged to have excellent taste in the tests

[0050] All mixtures in Table 1 contain glucose as the remainder to 100 wt.-%. Inevitable impurities may be present.

[0051] The mixtures listed in Table 1 have the following GSV values (rounded to two decimal places): Mixture 1—0.32, mixture 2—0.21, mixture 3—0.23, mixture 4—0.21, mixture 5—0.30, mixture 6—0.30, mixture 7—0.30, mixture 8—0.30.

EXAMPLE 2

Glucose-Containing Iced Tea with Particularly Low Calorie Content

[0052] In a further series of tests, two sweetening mixtures according to the invention were compared to pure sweetener and pure sucrose (comparative examples). First, the sweetening mixtures according to the invention were prepared by manually grinding the individual components. The compositions are listed in wt.-% in Table 2 below. Based on the sweetness of the individual components reported in the literature, the sweetness of the respective mixture was calculated and is also shown in Table 2. About 100 g of each mixture was prepared.

TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Mixture 9 Mixture 10 Mixture Mixture (comparative) (comparative) 11 12 Sucrose 100 — — — Glucose — — 97.9 95.5 Sodium — 90 1.5 (71%)   4 (89%) cyclamate Sodium — 10 0.6 (29%) 0.5 (11%) saccharin Sweetness  1 71  3.8  4.1

[0053] The above mixtures were used to sweeten a black tea extract to form an iced tea beverage. All four beverages were sweetened with appropriate amounts of the mixture according to their sweetness to achieve a comparable impression of sweetness. The amounts of the mixtures used are shown below in Table 3.

[0054] Mixture 9 from Table 2 was used to prepare beverage 1, mixture 10 for beverage 2, mixture 11 for beverage 3, and mixture 12 for beverage 4.

[0055] The four beverages prepared in this way were cooled to a drinking temperature of approximately 10 ° C. and subjected to blind tasting with 10 participants. Participants were asked to rate the taste of the beverage on an integer scale from 1 to 5 (1=very good to 5=poor). The average value of the ratings is given in Table 3.

TABLE-US-00003 TABLE 3 Beverage 1 Beverage 2 Beverage Beverage (comparative) (comparative) 3 4 Amount of the 64.0 1 17.0 15.7 mixture (g/L) Evaluation 1.5 3.2 1.7 1.4 Calorific 1075 0 272.8 240.4 value (kJ/L) Sugar 64.0 0 16.6 15.0 equivalents (g/L)

[0056] In Table 3, it can be seen that beverages 3 and 4 sweetened with the mixtures according to the invention received a similar evaluation to beverage 1 sweetened conventionally with sucrose. In particular, most participants indicated that it was not possible for them to distinguish the beverages according to the invention from the conventional sweetening method (sucrose).

[0057] On the other hand, beverage 2 with the synthetic sweetener was rated significantly worse, especially due to the aftertaste of the sweetener.

[0058] In addition, the approximate calorific values per litre, as well as the sugar equivalents contained, were calculated for the beverages produced. For the calculation of the calorific value, it was approximately assumed that the added carbohydrates (sucrose for beverage 1 and glucose for beverages 2-4) represent the only carbohydrate source.

[0059] When calculating sugar equivalents, it is indicated how much sugar a corresponding beverage can provide.

[0060] The test results show that the sweetening mixtures according to the invention are superior to conventional sweetening methods, since sufficient amounts of glucose are provided to supply the brain, the excessive intake of fructose is avoided and the subjective taste impression is comparable to that of sucrose.

[0061] In the second embodiment, the sweetening mixtures shown in Table 4 were also evaluated. It was indicated by the participants that all of the mixtures shown in Table 4 were usable in sweetening foods, in particular beverages. (analogous to Beverage 1 from Table 3) was distinguishable.

TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 4 Sweetness of Wt.-% Sweetness of the Sweetener the sweetener Sweetener sweetening mixture Aspartame* 140 ~2.3 3.8 Acesulfame K* 200 ~1.6 3.8 Steviol glycosides 250 ~1.3 3.9 Mogroside 250 ~1.3 3.9 Aspartame- 350 ~0.9 3.8 acesulfame salt* Neohesperidin DC 600 ~0.5 3.7 Thaumatin 2500 ~0.13 4.0 Neotame* 7000 ~0.05 4.2 Advantame* 37000 ~0.01 4.4 *These sweetening mixtures provided particularly good test results in terms of taste perception.

EXAMPLE 3

Sweetened Jam

[0062] An apricot jam was prepared according to the following recipe using a ratio of glucose to sweeteners according to the invention:

[0063] Ingredients: [0064] 500 g apricots [0065] 100 g sweetening mixture (glucose/sodium cyclamate/sodium saccharin) [0066] 10 g pectin [0067] 5 g citric acid

[0068] Preparation:

[0069] Washed, chopped fruit is mixed with the sweetening mixture, pectin and citric acid, brought to the boil and boiled for approx. 5 minutes (until gelling test is positive) with gentle bubbling and constant stirring, and then bottled.

[0070] The jam was tested comparatively with a jam made according to the same recipe with 400 g sucrose. With a slight change in consistency, the jam according to the invention was found to have an excellent taste, which was at least equivalent to that of the jam made with sucrose.

[0071] The jam was tested comparatively with another jam prepared according to the same recipe with 400 g glucose. With a slight change in consistency, the jam according to the invention was found to have an excellent taste, while the jam made with pure glucose had a much poorer taste.