Question

Sugar alcohols are also known as sugar relatives that occur naturally in fruits and vegetables but they can be produced commercially by microbial enzymes or chemical reactions via the reduction (hydrogenation) of both monosaccharides and disaccharides. The article: Eur Food Res Technol (2015) 241:1–14, reviews the role of sugar alcohols in the food industry:

i) Review the article and write a short summary of commonly used sugar alcohols and draw the structure of each sugar alcohol and the corresponding sugar. (one page)

ii) What is your opinion on the use of sugar alcohols as sweeteners? (one paragraph)

Answer 1

i) This paper mainly deals with how Epidemic obesity and diabetes encouraged the changes in population lifestyle and consumers’ food products awareness. Sugars alcohols as artificial sweeteners was the answer for this. In this paper , the author mainly talks about commonly used sugar alcohols such as erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol as sugar substitutes in food industry. Then we have an explanation of different types of sugar alcohols and how are they formed .Sugar alcohols are mainly produced from their corresponding aldose sugars, they are also called alditols .The paper discusses about their structure and how are they formed .

There are seven sugar alcohols which are defined as nutritive sweeteners according to European Union(EU) legislation, i.e., sorbitol (E420), mannitol (E421), isomalt (E953), maltitol (E965), lactitol (E966), xylitol (E967) and erythritol (E968) . According to EU, these must be always stated on packaging in the ingredients list .In order to ensure consumers with adequate information, products containing more than 10 % added polyols must include the advisory statement “excessive consumption may produce laxative effects” because these may cause flatulence, bloating and abdominal discomfort. The paper then discusses about Characteristics of sugar alochols, their Formula ,systematic name and their functional classes which mainly define the uses of these 7 sugar alcohols as emulsfier, humectant,sweetener,stabilizer,thickener etc. Then comes the major part which discusses about Caloric value, sweetness and glycemic index of sugar alcohols . Compared to Glucose(glycemic index =100) , we can see that all sugar alcohols have a lower glycemic index( highest being for Maltitol 35) which shows they have lesser calorie content.Then there is table of metabolism of these 7 sugars and how they are digested. The paper then takes each of the 7 sugar Alcohols erythritol, isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol and talks about their structure, characteristics, production and their properties and applications. To conclude, we can say that to reduce the increasing epidemic of

obesity and diabetes ,sugar alcohols are a good solution with lower calorific value and glycemic index but there is a constant need for studies regarding sugar alcohols metabolism and physiological effects on human bodies