Aspartame is a kind of natural functional oligosaccharide, high sweetness, not easy to deliquescent, not caries. It can be used as a sugar substitute in beverages, pharmaceutical products or sugar-free chewing gum due to its low calorie content and high sweetness. 1 g of aspartame can release about 4186 kJ/kg of heat, and 2.8 mg/ dL of aspartame can make one feel sweet, so we can ignore the heat generated by a small amount of aspartame.
Stability in food and beverage
Aspartame is stable in dried products such as solid powdered beverages and assorted pastries, and the overall stability is similar to that of pure aspartame. It can hydrolyze and cyclize in high temperature environment, which limits its application in baked and fried foods that need to be processed at high temperature for a long time. However, if properly handled, it can also be used in foods that require some degree of heat treatment, such as foods that need to be pasteurized at high temperatures (132-138 ° C, 1min). In other limiting conditions, such as frozen or quick-frozen foods, very little aspartame changes directly.
Sweetness
Aspartame has a refreshing, sucrose-like sweetness. It doesn't have the bitter or metallic aftertaste that artificial sweeteners typically have, which is an important advantage.
Aspartame is generally 180 to 220 times sweeter than sucrose in foods and soft drinks. In general, the relative sweetness of aspartame was inversely correlated with sucrose concentration of the control, and varied with different flavor systems, pH, tasting temperature, and sucrose or other sugar concentrations.
Flavor enhancement
Aspartame has a synergistic effect on some food and beverage flavors, especially on sour fruit flavors. When applied to certain foods, this flavor enhancing property could reduce the amount of aspartame used and satisfy certain special needs of products such as chewing gum. Gum made with aspartame lasted four times longer than gum made with sucrose.
Synergism
Aspartame can be mixed with either strong sweeteners or carbohydrate-based sweeteners, further expanding its range of use. When it is mixed with carbohydrate-based sweeteners such as sucrose, fructose, or glucose, the energy of the product drops but the sweetness does not change. When it is mixed with a strong sweetener such as saccharin, cysaline, acesultar, or stevia, the product can sometimes have a slightly bitter taste. This can be improved by increasing the proportion of aspartame in the mixture, and the degree of improvement increases as the proportion of aspartame increases.
