Analysis of sweeteners
Friederike Heising, Eurofins DILU GmbH, and Dr. Torben Küchler, Eurofins Analytik GmbH, Germany
Sweeteners are a group of food additives used to impart a sweet taste to foods without added sugar, or with reduced sugar content, or which are present in table-top sweeteners for the individual consumer to use. In general, sweeteners can be divided into two sub-groups, namely the sugar alcohols such as sorbitol and mannitol, which are used in foods with further technological intent besides their sweet taste, and artificial sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners have no physiological energy content or it is negligible in comparison to their sweetening power whereby they may be used for energyreduced sweetening. The most important and widely used artificial sweeteners are aspartame, saccharin, acesulfame K, sodium cyclamate and sucralose.
For many years there has been a steadily increasing interest of consumers in food additives from natural sources and therefore also from the food industry. On December 2nd 2011, steviol glycosides (E 960), which are extracted from the leaves of the stevia plant (Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni), were approved as a new sweetener by the European Union. In the course of the approval the market interest emerged offering plenty of potential uses for steviol glycosides e.g. in flavoured drinks, edible ices, cocoa and chocolate products, as covered by directive 2000/36/EC, and breakfast cereals.
However, attention has to be given to the quality, the composition and purity of this group of food additives – especially in these times of rapidly rising demand, since the steviol glycosides on offer on the world market may be of variable quality.
The use of sweeteners is currently regulated by directive 94/35/EC and for steviol glycosides in regulation (EU) N°1131/2011. The specific purity criteria for the artificial sweeteners are given in the directive 2008/60/EC. Both of these directives will be repealed by the commencement of regulation (EU) N°1333/2008 (replacement of 94/35/EC) from 1st June 2013 and of the regulation (EU) N°231/2012 from 1st December 2012 on (replacement of 2008/60/EC).
Eurofins offers several types of analyses for the determination of the content or purity of the above mentioned sweeteners and can advise on the legal basis with respect to labelling and the transition periods. Eurofins is also currently establishing a sensory determination of the sweetening power of raw materials to assist with product development. The determination of the sweetening power is especially of interest for stevia products, since the raw material is a mixture of different steviol glycosides, so that the sweetening intensity and the quality of the sweet taste of the stevia products on the market depend on the kind of processing, the composition and purity of the applied basic raw material.
Eurofins is therefore your partner of choice for the analysis and evaluation of sweeteners.
Contact: FriederikeHeising@eurofins.de