Glucose Syrups/High Fructose Syrups

Glucose Syrups/High Fructose Syrups
Glucose syrups, also known as corn syrups in the United States, are defined by European Commission (EC) as ‘a refined, concentrated aqueous solution of D(+)-glucose, maltose and other polymers of D-glucose obtained by the controlled partial hydrolysis of starch.

Glucose syrups were first manufactured industrially in the nineteenth century by acid hydrolysis of starch.

Hydrochloric acid was normally used, because sulphuric acid cause haze in syrups due to insoluble sulphates.

The source of starch can vary; in United States corn is widely used, whereas in other part o the world wheat, potato and cassava starch also employed.

The method is non specific, but of conditions are tightly controlled, it is possible to make products with a reasonably consistent carbohydrate profile.

Enzymes are also use to hydrolyze starch to glucose syrups, and these give a greater degree of control over the sugar profile of the resulting syrup.

The availability of commercial isomerizes enzymes in the 1970s, which are capable of converting glucose to fructose, allowed significant development of the production of high-fructose corn syrups with fructose levels of 42% an a sweetness level equivalent to sucrose.

Use of separation technology allowed further refinement of these products to give 55% fructose syrups.

These types of syrups are used extensively in the soft drinks, particularly in the United States.

In soft drinks, glucose, syrups are used to provide sweetness and mouthfeel to products and occasionally specific physiological properties in sports and energy drinks.
Glucose Syrups/High Fructose Syrups

Fructose

Fructose
Of the other sugars used by humans, fructose (also known as levulose), a monosaccharide (C6H12O6), is the sweetest (nearly twice as sweet as the table sugar, sucrose); and it is the most water soluble of the sugars.

It is hygroscopic, making it an excellent humectant when used in baked goods. The value of a humectant in baked goods is that it retards their dehydration.

Solution of fructose have a low viscosity that results in lower ‘body’ feel than sucrose but in greater flexibility of use over a wide range of temperatures.

Because of its greater solubility and more effective sweetness than sucrose, fructose is better alternative to sucrose when very sweet solutions are required, as fructose will not crystallize out of solution, whereas sucrose will.

Fructose has sometimes been called the fruit sugar, since it occurs in many fruits and berries. It also occurs as a major component in honey, corn syrup, cane sugar and beet sugar.

In fact sucrose, a disaccharide, is composed of glucose and fructose. Of these tow components, the glucose moiety cannot be monopolized by diabetics and it is for this reason that the ingestion of sucrose cannot be tolerated by diabetics.

Fructose, on the other hand, does not require insulin for its metabolism and can be used by diabetics with no concern. When used with saccharin it tends to mask the bitter aftertaste of saccharin. As its apparently accelerates the metabolism of alcohol, it has been used to treat those suffering from overdoses of alcohol.

It has been recommended as a rapid source of energy for athletes and in combination with gluconate and saccharin, as an economic, effective, safe, low calorie sweetener for beverages.
Fructose