Rare Sugar Syrup Masks Bitterness in High-Intensity Sweeteners
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-intensity sweeteners used in low-calorie foods and beverages often exhibit unpleasant tastes such as bitterness and lack body, making them less palatable to consumers, and existing solutions like D-psicose are costly and complicated to produce in large quantities.
Innovation Solution
A composition and method using a rare sugar-containing isomerized sugar syrup, produced by isomerizing isomerized corn syrup with an alkali, which improves the taste of high-intensity sweeteners by reducing bitterness and enhancing sweetness perception, without the need for expensive purified D-psicose or additional sugar alcohols.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of energy
If high-intensity sweetener is used to achieve low-calorie food or drink, then calorie content is reduced, but strange taste (bitterness) and lack of body are exhibited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a taste-modifying composition as an intermediary substance that interacts with the high-intensity sweetener to mask its bitterness and enhance its body. This composition contains specific ingredients that act as mediators between the sweetener and the consumer's palate, transforming the unpleasant taste profile into a more acceptable one while maintaining the low-calorie benefit.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite sweetening system by combining high-intensity sweetener with a taste-modifying composition containing multiple ingredients. This composite approach leverages the synergistic effects of different components to achieve both calorie reduction and taste improvement, rather than relying on a single substance.
2Loss of energy
If high-intensity sweetener is used to achieve low-calorie food or drink, then calorie content is reduced, but sweetness persistence deteriorates aftertaste sharpness
Solution Approach 1:
The taste-modifying composition acts as an intermediary that influences the temporal profile of sweetness perception. By incorporating specific ingredients, it accelerates the clearance of sweet taste from the palate, preventing excessive persistence while maintaining sufficient sweetness impact, thus improving aftertaste sharpness.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If D-psicose is used to improve taste of high-intensity sweetener, then sweetness and body are enhanced, but production cost increases and manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces expensive purified D-psicose with a cost-effective taste-modifying composition that can be produced through simpler manufacturing processes. This composition uses ingredients that are easier and cheaper to source and process, reducing both production cost and manufacturing complexity while achieving similar or superior taste enhancement effects.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent modifies the compositional parameters and processing methods to create a more economical production system. By adjusting the formulation of the taste-modifying composition and optimizing manufacturing parameters, it achieves cost reduction without compromising the ability to enhance sweetness and body.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively improves the taste of high-intensity sweeteners, providing a cost-effective and convenient way to enhance the sweetness and body of low-calorie foods and beverages, satisfying consumer preferences while reducing the risk of lifestyle diseases.
Implementation Method 1
a rare sugar-containing isomerized sugar syrup which is obtained by isomerizing one or more of the members selected from the group consisting of D-glucose, D-fructose, and an isomerized corn syrup with 0.005 mol/l or more of an alkali
Data Source
AI summary
An object of the present invention is to improve a distinctive strange taste (particularly bitterness remaining in the mouth) of a conventional low-calorie food or drink, particularly an edible product (a food or drink) having low calories obtained by replacing part or most of the sugar or isomerized sugar to be added by a high-intensity sweetener. Provided are a composition for improving a taste of a high-intensity sweetener, a method of improving a taste of an edible product containing a high-intensity sweetener, and an edible product in which a taste of a high-intensity sweetener is improved, each of which is characterized by containing or using an isomerized sugar and a rare sugar such that the rare sugar is contained or used in an amount of from 1 to 150 parts by mass based on 100 parts by mass of the isomerized sugar.