As sweeteners

Com as com flakes, sweet com, com as various types of flour and meal, popcorn, other snacks foods such as chips, and com juice as sweeteners, com used in fermentation for beer and in the production of alcohol, and corncobs and stalks used as carriers for various chemicals and medications, as fiber sources, and for the improvement of soil condition by plowing under stalks, are some of the uses for this versatile crop. See Ref. 75 for more information on corn. 

Thaumatin (trade name Talin) is a very potent sweetener (ca 2000X, 10% sucrose solution sweetness equivalence). However, its potency is overshadowed by inferior taste quaUties. The onset of sweetness is very slow, and after reaching the maximum sweetness, a very long-lingering sweetness combined with an unpleasant aftertaste follows. Primarily owing to this poor taste quaUty, thaumatin is not considered a practically useflil sweetener. It is, however, used as a flavor enhancer, especially in products such as chewing gum. Thaumatin and thaumatin B-recombinant were affirmed GRAS flavors (EEMA no. 3732 and 3814, respectively). They are not approved as sweeteners in the United States. 

As a protein, thaumatin is remarkably water-soluble (up to 60%) and is stable to heat at low pH. It has been reported that a thaumatin solution at pH less than 5.5 can be heated at 100°C for several hours without loss of sweetness. Comprehensive reviews on thaumatin as sweetener are available (100,101). 

Increasingly, biochemical transformations are used to modify renewable resources into useful materials (see Microbial transformations). Fermentation (qv) to ethanol is the oldest of such conversions. Another example is the ceU-free enzyme catalyzed isomerization of glucose to fmctose for use as sweeteners (qv). The enzymatic hydrolysis of cellulose is a biochemical competitor for the acid catalyzed reaction. 

Sugars are used as sweeteners, as thickeners, and as structural elements in foods (e.g., to make granola cruchy and hard candies hard). 

Adding a hydrogen or two to a sugar makes a sugar alcohol. The sugar alcohols xylitol, maltitol, sorbitol, and mannitol are all used as sweeteners in food. They are not absorbed well by the body, and they don t have as many calories as sugar. As with any... 

Intense and bulk sweeteners are endorsed by international agencies and approved in a large number of countries. Acesulfame K, aspartame and saccharin are available as sweeteners in the EU and Europe while sucralose is approved in the USA and due for approval in Europe and cyclamate, neohesperidin dihydrochalcone and thaumatin are available in Europe. As bulk sweeteners isomalt, lactitol, maltitol, mannitol, sorbitol and xylitol are commonly available. 

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