"Feeling down? Treat yourself to some dessert!" Whether you're an adult or a child, it's hard to resist the allure of sweet foods. For those who love sweets but are concerned about their weight, choosing snacks and beverages that use zero-calorie sweeteners instead of sugar might be a good option. So, how much do you know about sweeteners that replace table sugar? What sweeteners are available for use in food? In this article, Global Foodmate makes a general introduction to sweetner to help you understand better.

I. What is sweetener?

Sweetener is a type of food additives which substitutes sugar to give a sweet taste in food, excluding monosaccharide and disaccharide. In general, sweetener is synthetic chemicals but some of them are extracted from plants. Sweetener comes with varying levels of sweetness, and the combination of different sweetener produces synergistic effects on the overall flavour of food. Therefore, it is typical of the food industry to use more than one type of sweetener in a food product. The common food commodity with added sweetener includes candied fruit, confectionery, condiments, beverages, food for special dietary use, etc.

II. The Use of Sweeteners in Food

Broadly speaking, sweeteners are categorized based on their origin into natural sweeteners and artificially synthesized sweeteners. Natural nutritive sweeteners participate in human metabolism; natural non-nutritive sweeteners typically have the characteristic of low caloric content; artificially synthesized sweeteners have a high sweetness level and low caloric content, and they do not undergo metabolic absorption in the human body, hence they are also known as non-nutritive sweeteners.

Most countries or regions classify sweeteners as a type of food additive and manage them accordingly. The Codex GSFA sets forth the maximum levels of permitted food additives, including sweeteners, in specified food categories/items. The approach of setting maximum levels of additives for specified foods is also adopted by various jurisdictions such as the the Mainland of China, the European Union, Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. This ensures that the intake of a food additive from all its uses does not have health concern.

There are many types of sweeteners, and their usage scope and limits vary from country to country. Neotame has been thoroughly assessed and determined safe by international and national authorities. It is neither cancer-causing nor associated with any adverse health effects. Even a total replacement of sugar in the diet with neotame would not result in its "acceptable daily intake" (ADI) being exceeded. Despite structural similarity of neotame to aspartame, the potential release of phenylalanine from neotame is limited. Therefore, phenylketonuria (PKU) patients can enjoy neotame as well. Codex has permitted the use of neotame as sweetener in various foods. To date, neotame is a permitted sweetener in more than 60 countries/areas has recently been approved.

Sodium cyclamate itself has very low toxicity, but the cyclohexylamine produced by its metabolism in the intestinal bacteria exhibits certain toxicity. Long-term or excessive intake of saccharin may lead to liver function damage and other pathological changes. Therefore, some countries like the United States and Japan have completely banned the use of saccharin, but China, CAC, the European Union, and Singapore still allow its reasonable use as regulated.

III. What is the relationship between sweetener and health?

Since sweetener does not provide much energy nor affect insulin or glucose levels, it can aid obese persons and diabetics in weight management, enabling whom to enjoy the sweet food. Moreover, sweetener is mainly used in snack rather than in staple food so the dietary intake of sweetener is unlikely to cause health hazards. However, phenylketonuria patients and people who are allergic to particular sweetener should read the food label in detail while shopping for food to check whether the food contains the sweetener concerned.

Summary

Although there is no safety concern on these sweeteners, there are "sweet-traps" to be aware of. Removing sugar solely from a food does not automatically make it low-calorie or low-fat. Eating too much of these sweeteners-containing food may still lead to high blood sugar in diabetic patients due to other carbohydrates in the food or weight gain due to other ingredients such as fat. So, no matter the food is added with sugars or sweeteners, it is important to maintain a balanced diet.