Safety and function of sweetener

The definition of sweetener: sweetener refers to the food additive that gives sweetness to food At present, there are more than 20 kinds of sweeteners approved to be used in China, and the newly approved sweeteners are Shuangtian and soma Tian Non sugar sweeteners and sugar alcohols are generally managed as food additives, so they are called sweeteners Non sugar sweeteners have high sweetness, little dosage and little calorific value, which are totally different from sugars such as sucrose and do not participate in metabolic process They are often called non nutritive or low calorific value sweeteners, also known as high sweetness sweeteners or high-power sweeteners (including stevioside, sucralose, aspartame, AK sugar, cyclamate, glycyrrhizin, kalium Glycyrrhizinate, kalium Glycyrrhizinate, Ammonium Glycyrrhizinate Luohanguo glucoside, saccharin, neotian, Shuangtian, somata, alitian, etc.) Sugar alcohol sweeteners (including: xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, maltitol, mannitol, lactose alcohol, isomaltone alcohol, etc.) are mostly synthesized by man Their sweetness is similar to that of sucrose, or because of their low calorific value, or because they have different metabolic processes with glucose, and have some special uses At present, there are many sweets used in the world, and there are different classification methods: according to their sources, they can be divided into natural sweets and artificial sweets; according to their nutritional value, they can be divided into nutritional sweets and non nutritional sweets; according to their chemical structure and properties, they can be divided into sugar and non sugar sweets Sugar sweeteners such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, fructose syrup and so on all provide sweetness They are usually called sugar in China and classified as food, but not as food additives in the world In recent years, oligosaccharides, such as fructooligosaccharide and maltooligosaccharide, which are produced and applied at home and abroad, not only have some sweetness, but also have some physiological activity, most of them belong to food ingredients, and generally not as food additives management The function of sweetener Sweetener is an important product in food additive, animal feed and other industries Its application volume has always been in the forefront of all kinds of food additives in the world The use of sweetener in food is not only to meet consumers' sensory needs for sweetness, taste and flavor, but also to meet the needs of many food production processes It has been processed and produced It plays a key role in the adjustment of food and beverage styles In the past 20 years, the occurrence of high incidence of obesity, diabetes and caries has been considered to be closely related to the eating habits and dietary structure, especially the excessive intake of sucrose As a traditional sweetener, sucrose has a good taste, but has a certain impact on human health With the public's higher and higher requirements for health, people's requirements for various sweeteners are more and more stringent Health, taste and price are the focus of consumers' attention How to make the energy value of sweetener as low as possible or even zero to meet the health requirements, how to make it taste good to meet the taste requirements, and how to make its price more appropriate to meet people's consumption level, these three issues have become the focus of scientists in the research and development of sweetener Therefore, "functional" sweeteners with high safety, no nutritional value, no calories or very low calories came into being At present, sweeteners are mainly divided into two categories: "functional" high power sweeteners and "functional" filling sweeteners The sweetness of functional sweeteners is usually more than 10 times that of sucrose According to different sources, high power sweeteners can be divided into natural extracts and chemical synthetic products At present, the natural extracts mainly include stevioside, liquorice and soma sweet, and the chemical synthetic products mainly include aspartame, neotame, sucralose, acesulfame and alitame The sweetness of the filling sweetener is usually 0.2-2 times of that of sucrose, which has the function of both sweetener and filler, and can give the structure and volume of food The filling sweetener is mainly polysaccharide alcohol Polysaccharides include erythritol, xylitol and maltitol Up to now, there are about 20 kinds of high power sweeteners approved by many countries in the world, including sucralose, stevioside, acesulfame, cyclamate, aspartame, alitian, double sweet, neotame, glycyrrhizin, siraitin, saccharin sodium and soma sweet The characteristics of high times sweetener are high safety, low dosage, high sweetness, not easy to caries, and the use cost is generally far lower than sucrose At present, synthetic high-power sweetener occupies a large market share because it has the following advantages: 1 Synthetic high-power sweetener has the advantages of high sweetness, small volume, less use, and energy value of 0 or almost 0, which is conducive to reduce costs and improve efficiency of manufacturers 2 It is not digested and absorbed by the body, does not cause the fluctuation of blood sugar, does not have the risk of causing obesity and hyperlipidemia, and can be safely eaten by special groups such as diabetic patients and obese people 3 It is harmless to human teeth and will not cause caries 4 The application of aspartame and sucralose in food has obvious flavor enhancing effect Of course, there are also some shortcomings of high-power sweeteners, which are mainly reflected in the following two aspects: first, the sweetness of a small part of synthetic products is not pure enough, with different degrees of bitterness, metal aftertaste or peculiar smell, there is a certain gap compared with the flavor of sucrose, and sometimes it is difficult for people to accept For example, saccharin has a little bad taste; for example, Altan, because of its molecular sulfur element, the taste is also affected However, most of the sweeteners, such as sucralose and stevioside (RA), have good sweetness characteristics, and the taste is similar to that of sucrose Second, because the high-power sweetener products have large sweetness and small volume, the application of equal sweetness instead of sucrose in solid or semi-solid food will cause significant changes in product texture, viscosity, volume and food flavor In some cases, it is also necessary to use filler or filling sweetener Therefore, the global market for a new generation of higher safety and better performance of high-power sweetener demand is growing At present, high-power sweeteners in the development and utilization stage include sweet protein, African bamboo taro, sugar alcohol reprocessing sweetener, super sweetener perilla scape, etc The new high power sweetener developed should not only meet the requirements of food industry, but also pass the strict toxicity and toxicology test safety evaluation The specific requirements should include: high safety; high sweetness; close to or similar to sugar; stable nature, convenient application; low cost, environmental protection, etc The safety of sweeteners "food safety law of the people's Republic of China" clearly states that "food additives refer to the synthetic or natural substances added into food for the purpose of improving food quality, color, fragrance and taste, as well as for the needs of antisepsis, preservation and processing technology." The use of food additives is an effective measure to help food production and processing and improve the internal quality of food Therefore, the application of food additives is the need of the development of food industry modernization and the symbol of advanced food processing technology and social progress According to our country's food additive management laws and regulations, the application of food additives is legal and reasonable Food additives themselves are not a problem for food safety at all On the contrary, food additives can improve the level of food safety Food safety and quality are inseparable from food additives Adding some food additives to the food can prevent the food from oxidation and deterioration, maintain the nutritional value of the food, improve the quality and efficacy of the food, which also improves the safety level of the food, and is beneficial to the health of our consumers It's hard to imagine that without food additives, most of our consumers' daily consumption of food is safe and quality? In addition, in order to ensure the safe use of food additives, the approval is strictly regulated The health department is responsible for the risk assessment, determining the maximum allowable intake ADI value, use scope and maximum use limit of the variety, and then through the expert review, it will be published in the form of the announcement of the health department In risk assessment, Danish budget method, dietary model method and dietary exposure assessment method are usually used to calculate how much food additives are consumed, whether it will exceed the maximum allowable intake and whether the maximum added amount is safe and scientific In the evaluation model, the setting of additive usage is very conservative, so as to ensure that even if the food with excessive additive is consumed many times, it will not be poisoned In the Danish budget method for estimating the amount of additive used, when the amount used is less than 40 times the maximum safe intake, the additive can be used for solid food, which means that the allowable amount of additive is 1 / 40 of the maximum safe intake In fact, the safety multiple of chemical additives is much higher than that of nutrients, for example, when the safety multiple of fat is less than 2, that is, when the actual intake is twice the allowable intake, it will cause harm to human body; when the safety multiple of aspartame is 800, that is, when the actual intake is 800 times the allowable intake, it will cause harm to human body So even if we eat the same kind of food additives for a long time, it's safe, and consumers don't have to worry about it We eat sweet food almost every day, so is the artificial sweetener added to some foods safe? Experts from the joint food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization Expert Committee on food additives (JECFA) and other experts have conducted a special discussion on the safety and health of artificial sweeteners, and reached the unanimous conclusion: as long as it is correct according to national standards The use of sweeteners will not cause harm to health In order to ensure the safe use of sweeteners, strict standards have been established at home and abroad JECFA is the most authoritative organization in the world to evaluate the safety of food additives The experts of the committee are required to conduct toxicity tests (including acute, subchronic, mutagenic, carcinogenic, reproductive and chronic toxicity), metabolic pathway and metabolic dynamics studies on all sweeteners On this basis, the ADI value is proposed, i.e mg / kg / day per person For the sake of safety, various factors such as race, gender and age have been taken into account when formulating the ADI value It can be said that there is no safety problem in normal intake of sweeteners according to the ADI value The ADI values of our common artificial sweeteners are as follows: saccharin 0-5, i.e no more than 5mg per person per day, aspartame 0-40, cyclamate 0-11, acesulfame 0-15, sucralose 0-15, alitame 0-1 Generally speaking, the higher the ADI value is, the better the safety is, but not necessarily For example, the sweetness of alitame is 2000 times that of sucrose, and the ADI value cannot be very high China's standard for the use of food additives (gb2760-2011) refers to international standards and clearly specifies the varieties, scope and maximum use amount of food additives allowed to be used in China For example, saccharin can be used in pickles, compound seasonings, preserves, prepared wine, cold drinks, pastries and bread, but the use amount must be strictly controlled below 0.15g per kilogram of food Saccharin shall not be used in infant food Saccharin is also prohibited in canned fruit wine, liqueur, yellow rice wine, beer, white wine and meat, aquatic products, fruits and vegetables Another example is aspartame, which is composed of aspartic acid and phenylalanine These two amino acids are found in all protein containing foods we eat everyday They are metabolized through the normal metabolic pathway of human body Now in the world