Flavor enhancers fructose

Fructose contributes useful physical and functional attributes in food and beverage applications, including sweetness, flavor enhancement, humectancy, freezing-point depression, and osmotic stability.144... 

The 55 percent HFCS sells for about 25 cents/lb, which is 5 to 10 percent cheaper than liquid invert sugar on a dry weight basis. Fifty-five percent HFCS, made by combining the 42 percent HFCS with 90 percent HFCS, has about the same degree of sweetness as sucrose. It is used as a sweetener and flavor-enhancer in fruit-flavored soft drinks. Fructose enhances flavors, whereas sucrose masks them. 

Fructose Suspension, and solution (up to 25%) Enhances fruit flavors, and is 20% sweeter than sucrose Browning may occur when combined with strong acids or alkalis Aqueous solutions are most stable in pH 3-4 More soluble in alcohol than is sucrose... 

The sweetness-response profile of fructose is perceived in the mouth more rapidly than that of sucrose and dextrose, which may account for the ability of fructose to enhance syrup or tablet fruit flavors and mask certain unpleasant vitamin or mineral off-flavors . 

For example, flavor notes of apple (8), blueberry (11), tomato (24), and orange juice ( 1, 2) have been reconstituted. Sweetness in carrots is enhanced by added fructose with no significant diminution of harsh flavor ( ) whereas harsh flavor has been elicited in mild carrots by the addition of suitable levels of the major volatile terpenoids of carrot (Table I). 

Caramelization of sucrose requires a temperature of about 200°C. Reactions involved in the caramelization of sucrose include mutarotation, enolization and isomerization, dehydration and fragmentation, anhydride formation, and polymerization. The extent to which the reaction occurs depends upon pH, temperature, and heating time. Sucrose, held at 160°C as a melt, will hydrolyze to glucose and fructose anhydride. The production of water and organic acids such as acetic, formic, and pyruvic during sucrose caramelization will enhance the hydrolysis. Hydrolytic products, glucose and fructose, are reactants in the formation of caramel and volatile flavor compounds... 

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