Honey relative sweetness

The high sweetness of fructose combined with that of glucose means invert sugar is sweeter than sucrose, so it provides a cheaper, less calorific sweetener than sucrose. The relative sweetness figures for sucrose, glucose and fructose are 1.0, 0.7 and 1.7 respectively. Honey is also composed mainly of invert sugar. 

Sucrose is produced in a high state of purity on an enormous scale—more than 80 million tons per year. About 40% of the world s sucrose production comes from sugar beets and 60% comes from sugarcane. A comparison of the sweetness of common sugars and artificial sweeteners relative to sucrose is given in Table 15.1. Honey, which is a mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose, has been used for centuries as a natural sweetener for foods and is sweeter than sucrose, or cane sugar (Table 15.1). To convert cane... 

Among the disaccharide sweetening agents, D-fruc-tose tastes the sweetest—even sweeter than sucrose. The sweet taste of honey is due largely to D-fructose and D-glucose. Lactose has almost no sweetness and is sometimes added to foods as filler. Some people cannot tolerate lactose well, however, and should avoid these foods.The following table lists the sweetness of various carbohydrates and artificial sweeteners relative to that of sucrose ... 

---