Milling & Baking News - December 20, 2005 - 22

December 2005

Alternatively sweet
impact on the gelatinization of flour.
Debra Bryant, technical director, Palatinit of America, Morris Plains, N.J., added that mouthfeel and taste, too, must
be considered.
"It is clearly a challenge to mimic
the many functionalities of the sugar
in baked foods while making a product
with non-sucrose ingredients," said Philippe
Caillat, food market developer, Roquette, Lestrem, France. A traditional cookie contains an
average of 20% to 25%
sucrose, he explained,
and the sugar not only
acts as a bulking agent
but also provides sweetness, color and appropriate texture.
"These characteristics are key to
formulating high-quality, low-sugar
baked foods," he noted.
"The biggest concern is to maintain the
quality of what people expect the product to look and taste like," said Wendy
Erickson, senior food scientist specializ-

aking a sugar replacer work
like sugar is only half the trick
when formulating low- and nosugar products that boast low-glycemic
index ratings. The other part is making
the finished product look and taste good
to meet consumer expectations, and
that's paramount. Product formulators

To lower the glycemic
index of baked foods,
formulators turn to
alternate sweeteners
while balancing function,
flavor and performance.
may struggle to achieve such goals, but
ingredient suppliers answer these needs
with alternate sweeteners and blends
suited to baked foods.

Expanding beyond sweetness
Obviously, sweeteners sweeten foods,
but they fill other functional roles, especially in baked products. Hilary Hursh, food
and nutrition scientist, Orafti, Malvern,
Pa., observed that successful formulation
of low-sugar baked foods requires replacing both the sweetness and bulk of sugar.
John Curry, vice-president of business
development for Sweetener Solutions,
L.L.C., Savannah, Ga., confirmed this fact,
saying, "The biggest hurdle for bakers in
formulating low-sugar or no-sugar items
is where sugar plays the role of bulking
agent as well as a sweetening agent."
Further, as explained by Lori Napier,
manager food applications, Tate & Lyle,
Decatur, Ill., sugar's functionality extends to qualities of solubility, crystallization, impact on water activity, texturizing characteristics, browning and

ing in baking at Cargill, Inc., Cedar Rapids, Iowa. "It is difficult to find adequate
substitutes for sugar in baked foods because sugar affects softness, sweetness,
pan flow and other factors. It is hard to
duplicate these effects with polyols or
other sugar substitutes alone."
Putting alternate sweeteners to work
in baked foods requires a fine sense of
balance. There is the matter of the difference in physical volume, said Sarah
Babb, senior national marketing manager for Equal at Merisant, Chicago.
"When using alternative sweeteners, the amount required to achieve
the same sweetness as sugar is much
smaller, so formulators must find ingredients to make up the mass that sugar
once filled," she explained.
Ms. Hursh added, "A variety of highintensity sweeteners exist, but replacing
bulk while maintaining a desirable texture is more difficult. The soluble fibers
inulin and oligofructose help to replace
the bulk of sugar while having minimum
impact on water absorption, texture, flavor or processing characteristics."
Characteristics of alternate sweeteners

sucralose are optimized to deliver the
eating characteristics found in full-sugar
products.
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

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