Beverages: Soft Drinks

since 1970

consumption of soft drinks (bottled waters, iced coffees and teas), fruit juices and alcoholic beverages up; consumption milk down

high fructose corn syrup (HFCS)

most heavily used ingredient sweetener; development of HFCS manufacture a direct result of Castro's revolution in Cuba due to embargo of Cuban cane sugar in US

Sugar alcohols (polyhydric alcohols)

naturally occurring in foods and used as additives; impart a somewhat sweet taste of a pleasant cooling sensation (used in chewing gums, hard candies, candies for diabetics, and nut bars), but in excess may produce a laxative effect, gas; contribute about 4kcal/g (same as sucrose) but bacteria cannot ferment them so they are noncariogenic; absorbed more slowly into the body than sugars; work synergistically with sugars as flavorings; ex. Xylitol, sorbitol, erythritol, mannitol

Brown sugars

obtained from cane sugar during the late stages of refining; clumps of sucrose crystals coated with a film of molasses

Polydextrose

often used with non-nutritive sweeteners in frozen desserts, puddings, baked goods, frostings, candies; provides ~25% of the calories of sucrose, therefore when used with a non-nutritive sweetener, can reduce caloric content by >50%

Degradation

opening of ring structure as result of cooking (acid conditions enhance); leads to further breakdown

High-intensity nonnutritive sweeteners

original desire for these products sparked by goal to reduce calories and tooth decay

Things go better with Coke

"A cure for all nervous afflictions - sick head-ache, Neuralgia, Hysteria, Melancholia"

White crystalline glucose

(~75 to 80% as sweet at sucrose) made from complete hydrolysis of corn starch (used chiefly by food industry)

Granulated sugars: the process

1. plant material is crushed or sliced, and sugar is pressed or leached out 2. juice filtered, clarified, evaporated under vacuum (at this point it is raw sugar containing ~3% impurities) 3. Raw sugar is further refined by dissolving, purifying and recrystallizing to produce a granulated sugar 4. wet sucrose crystals pressed into cake and cut into cube or tablet form is called lump sugar

Evaporated cane juice

100% sucrose (crystals from evaporated sugarcane juice)

Fear of fructose or HFCS or both?

Advertising:"Made with no high-fructose corn syrup." "Fructose is metabolized to fat in your body far more rapidly than any other sugar, and because it is in liquid form (soda), its negative metabolic effects are magnified." Blamed for leading to diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndromes, increases in triglycerides and LDL cholesterol, liver disease

Sports or isotonic beverages

designed to prevent dehydration and give a quick energy burst during strenuous exercise; same osmotic pressure as human blood (isotonic) for rapid absorption; for electrolyte replacement: K phosphate, NaCl, Na citrate, and KCl used; carb content of 6 to 8% common; sweeteners are usually glucose, maltodextrins (of intermediate length) and sucrose (in non-diet carb soft drinks, carb content normally 10 o 12%); low level of carbonation to avoid GI discomfort when consumed in large volumes

Honey

from domesticated European honeybee; honey bees transform nectar into honey by regurgitation; composition: 17% water and 82.5% carb with small amounts of minerals, vitamins and enzymes; FDA states that honey cannot have >8% sucrose (otherwise it's an indication of adulteration); also, no HFCS allowed; flavor of honey depends on source of nectar

Saccharin safety?

"Anybody who says saccharin is injurious to health is an idiot," said Pres. Teddy Roosevelt at turn of century when critics proposed banning it; Warning label: "This product contains saccharin which has been determined to cause cancer in laboratory animals." bladder tumors developed in male rats fed high doses of sodium saccharin

carbonated soft drinks

#1 consumed beverage in US; product diversity is broad and innovative and soft drinks in decline

Maltodextrins

(form corn starch) less hydrolyzed to glucose than corn syrup solids, therefore less sweet with very bland flavor, but contributes chewiness, binding properties, and viscosity to candy

Hydrolysis

(with heat/acid) --> glucose + fructose [aka invert sugar]

Molasses

53% sucrose, 23% fructose, 21% glucose (from sugarcane refining)

Cyclamates

30 times sweeter than sucrose; the sodium and calcium salts of cyclohexansulfamic acid; first big-time noncaloric sweetener; diet sodas started with it; tastes very similar to sugar; heat-stable; features "slow onset" sweetness; discovered by student, Michael Sveda, at University of Illinois in 1937; commonly used as artificial sweeteners until 1969 when use was banned by FDA after reports that ingestion of large quantities appeared to cause cancer in some animals; saccharin was replacement; no evidence that cyclamates are associated with cancer in humans

Honey

50% fructose, 44% glucose, 42% fructose

Grape juice concentrate

52% fructose, 48% glucose (from cooking down grape juice)

Apple juice concentrate

60% fructose, 27% glucose, 13% sucrose (made by cooking down apple juice)

Corn syrup

8 to 96% glucose, 0% fructose, 0% sucrose (liquid made from cornstarch)

Agave syrup or nectar

84% fructose, 8% glucose, 8% sucrose (from Mexican Agave cactus)

Brown sugar

97% sucrose, 1% fructose, 1% glucose (granulated white sugar mixed with a small amount of molasses)

Nutrasweet

Aspartame, used globally in over 3,000 products; discovered in December 1965 while trying to develop new ulcer drug, James Schlatter (G.D. Seattle & Co.) was recrystalling aspartame (intermediate chemical) from ethanol, the mixture spilled onto the outside of the flask. Some of the powder got onto his fingers. Late when he licked his fingers to pick up paper he noticed a very strong sweet taste

Table Sugar

besides sweetening, also fermentable by yeasts, binds water to lower available moisture and retard microbial growth in foods; produced commercially either from sugar cane (~2/3 of world production) and sugar beets (~1/3 of world production)

Maple Syrup

boiled sap from the sugar maple tree; water content reduced to 35% (40:1 reduction is necessary); for flavor development, boiling of the sap is necessary

Seltzer Water

carbonated water

club soda

carbonated water with sodium bicarbonate and potassium carbonate added

HFCS acting alone?

HFCS not pure fructose, usually around 55% fructose, but can be less, the rest glucose; table sugar is 50% fructose, the rest glucose; few differences between HFCS and table sugar regarding blood sugar, insulin, gherlin (which stimulates appetite), or leptin (which curbs appetite); "People are so conscious of avoiding HFCS, they 'forget' to avoid other sweeteners."

Honey laundering: sweet and sickly

Honey's in everything: check out any bakery product, sauce, processed food. Honey is baked into everything from breakfast cereals to cookies and mixed into sauces and cough drops; all-natural origin has garnered lofty status among health-conscious consumers who prefer products without refined sweeteners (think white sugar and processed corn syrup); US consumes about 400 million pounds of honey a year

Processing honey

comb is uncapped and centrifuged; may be pasteurized to kill yeasts and delay crystallization; may be strained to remove wax particles and foreign matter, and perhaps filtered to remove pollen, air bubbles, and other fine particles.

Hire's Root Beer

combo of 16 roots, herbs and berries: Juniper, spikenard, sarsaparilla, vanilla beans, licorice, dog grass, pipsissewa, wintergreen, hops, ginger, deer tongue (plant), birch bark, sassafras (found in 1960 to cause cancer in lab animals - removed from recipe) Root Tea? friends said Root Beer sounded better

Litesse

commercial polydextrose; 89:10:1 mix of polydextrose:sorbitol:citric acid

Stevia (or Stecioside)

South American herb used as a sweetener by Guarani Indians of Paraguay for hundreds of years; from leaves of small green Stevia rebaudiana; "No calories, no too decay, totally natural" (from plant extract); FDA approved; heat-stable; 200-300 times sweeter than sugar; cuttingly most popular for use in teas and coffees; disadvantages: bitter licorice-like aftertaste, bloating, gas, allergic reactions

Functional properties of sugars

Sweetness and other flavors (high temps of candy-making create degradation products that contribute additional flavor, eg. caramel) Color (from Maillard browning and degradation products from exposure to heat) Texture (sugars bind water, will thicken, will tenderize, increase volume) Mouthfeel (thickening and tenderization)

Relative sweetness to sucrose (5% solutions)

Thaumatin (Talin) = 2000-3000X Monellin = 1500-2000 Sucralose (Splenda) = 600 Stevioside = 300 Saccharin = 200-300 Acesulfame K (Sunette) = 130-200 Aspartame (Nutrasweet or Equal) = 100-200 Cyclamates = 30-80 Fructose = 1.3 Xylitol = 1.01 Sucrose = 1.00 Tagatose (Naturlose) = 0.92 Invert sugar = 0.85-1.0 Xylose = 0.59 Glucose = 0.56 Galactose = 0.4-0.6 Maltose = 0.3-0.5 Lactose = 0.2-0.3

Hygroscopicity

ability to attract and hold water, which is characteristic of sugars to varying degrees

Difficult to control

american beekeepers, already suffering from a bee death epidemic that is killing off a third of their colonies a year, say the flow of suspect imports has not let up

Corn syrups

contain ~75% carbohydrate (type varies widely) and 25% water; composition varies dependent upon manufacturing process and proposed use of product; produced by using acid and high temperatures to hydrolyze starch; carb content varies from 10 to 36% glucose and from 9 to 20% maltose, the remainder higher sugars and dextrin (polysaccharides smaller than starch)

tonic water

contains fruit extracts and small amount of quinine

non carbonated fruit beverages (not juices)

content varies tremendously; fruit juice content may range from 1.5 to 70%; in addition to juice, water, sweeteners, flavoring, coloring and preservatives added, acids are normally used; can be low-calorie or high-calorie; susceptible to microbial spoilage, so in addition to preservatives, pasteurization is required (by heat or micro filtration)

Root beer

created in 1800s and started as medicinal drinks; goes back to colonial days when farmers' wives brewed it at home; it was yeast-fermented product that contained sugar; 1870 a Philly pharmacist Charles F. Hires spent time experimenting with root beer recipes while on honeymoon

Sucralose

discovered in 1976, derived from sugar through patented process that chlorinates sugar; looks like granulated sugar; 600 times sweeter than sucrose with no bitter aftertaste; very water-soluble and heat-soluble, can be used in baked goods; does not interact with any other food component but cariogenic (causes tooth decay)

Soft Drink companies

early 1880s a number of soft drink makers were experimenting with ingredients from cocoa shrub (cocaine), the cola tree (caffeine) and alcohol ex. Cocoafeine, French Wine Coca, Coca-Coffee, Burgundia Coca, Kola Phosphate, Coca-Malta; John S. Pemberton of Atlanta, former confederate calvaryman who became pharmacist (or medicine man)

other car syrup manipulations

enzymes can be used to modify syrups for different uses: -glucoamylase yields more glucose (high-glucose syrups have lower viscosity and higher sweetening power) -B-amylase yields more maltose dried corn syrups or corn syrups solids produced by spray or vacuum drying of refined corn syrup for use in dry beverage mixes, instant breakfast mixes, cereal bars, and sauce mixes

overall growth of beverage industry

extremely good

Saccharin

first synthesized in 1878 (John Hopkins University), in use in foods since 1901; 300 to 700 times more sweet than sucrose; stable under extreme pressure processing conditions; cheap and easy to produce; cyclamates though safer than saccharin at one time (and now again?)

1906 Pure Food and Drugs Act

forced removal of cocaine in product (it was only trace levels to begin with); national advertising was emphasized, "a leisure drink enjoyed by opera stars, middle-class theatre parts, sportsmen, and young, female models, for only a nickel a bottle!"

Bulk honey

giant steel drums of honey bound for grocery store shelves and the food processors that crank out your cereal are in constant flow through the global market; most honey comes from China, where beekeepers are notorious for keeping their bees healthy with antibiotics (especially chloramphenicol) banned in North America because they seep into honey and contaminate it; packers there learn to mask the acrid notes of poor quality product by mixing in sugar or corn-based syrups to fake good taste

HFCS process (step 2)

glucose solution is then treated with the enzyme glucose isomerase which converts glucose to fructose; fructose sweeter than sucrose or glucose; HFCS=42 to 55% fructose with the remaining sugars being glucose and higher sugars

Sugars

honey was first sweetener; in dry form are ~100% carbs, so foods high in sugars have low nutrient density (the more refined sugar, the lower the level of accompanying nutrients); levels of sweetness vary; solubilities vary; hygroscopicity

cocrystallized sucrose

industry favorite; process - supersaturated solution of sucrose is rapidly agitated with cooling, resulting in aggregates of micro-sized crystals that are 'sponge-like'; a second ingredient can be absorbed or crystallized onto it; there is no settling-out of the second ingredient; second ingredients can be flavorings and additives for instant-type products

Powdered sugars

machine-ground from granulated sucrose; different grades based on particle size; usually contain small amounts of corn starch (~3%) to prevent caking

Bulking agents

many high-intentisy non-nutritive sweeteners, but all used at far lower levels than sucrose; macronutrient substitutes needed when making the sugar out in any product; also used with fat-free products; ex. cellulose, maltodextrins, soy fiber, polydextrose

Aspartame

methyl ester of aspartate and phenylalanine (its a dipeptide); 180 to 200 times sweeter than sucrose; no bitter aftertaste, but not stable to heat (solved by using encapsulation in a water-resistant polymer); does have caloric value, but so low as to be insignificant; people with PKU (phenylketonuria) should never use (PKU affects 1 in 16000 people)

Invert sugar syrup

mix of glucose and fructose; obtained by splitting sucrose into these two components; compared with its precursor, sucrose, invert sugar is sweeter and products tend to remain more moist and less prone to crystallization; therefore valued by bakers who refer to it as trimoline or invert syrup

Hire's advantages

mix of herbs and roots not only made good root beer but also dissolved more readily in water; packet sold for $.25 and when brewed with water, yeast and sugar, made 5 gallons of root beer ($.005 per 12 oz glass); 1876 began selling packets by mail with ads in national publication, Harper's Magazine

Pemberton

produced Globe of Flower Cough Syrup, Indian Queen Hair Dye, Triplex Liver Pills, and Extract of Styllinger (to improve one's blood); French Wine Coca, an "ideal Nerve Tonic and Stimulant" was made with wine and coca leaves, but Atlanta adopted prohibition in 1886, so Coca-Cola was developed and was originally green

Honey rackets

rarely will jar of honey say "Made in China" . instead chinese honey sold in North America is more likely to be stamped as Indonesian, Malaysian or Taiwanese, due to a growing multimillion dollar laundering system designed to "wash" chinese-rigin product - with new packaging and false documents, where tariffs have been implemented to staunch the flow and protect its own struggling industry

Hire's expansion

realized future of pop did not lie with home-brewed drinks, but in soda fountains b/c customers liked convenience of take-home bottles; developed liquid extract; 1893 began bottling and selling Hire's Root Beer in Philly "Soothing to the nerves, vitalizing to the blood, refreshing the brain, beneficial in every way."

Energy drinks

soft drinks advertised as providing energy to improve physical activity of the drinker as compared to a conventional soft drink; common ingredients include: Methylxanthines (esp. caffeine), B vitamins and herbs. Also usually guarana (high caffeine content) and taurine, along with ginseng, maltodextrin, carbonated water, inositol, carnitine, creatine, gluconolactone and gingko biloba. Typically there are high levels of sugar or artificially sweetened diet varieties with Splenda, aspartame, etc. Caffeine can be in the form of guarana or yerba mate; average 8 fl oz energy drink has about 80 mg caffeine

HFCS process (Step 1)

starts with corn starch (polysaccharide of glucose); corn starch treated with the enzyme a-amylase; a-amylase removes individual glucose units from starch (glucose itself is not very sweet)

Caramelization

sugar crystals melt at 170 degrees C (338 degrees F), complex chemical breakdown; Maillard reaction involved

procedure of carbonated drinks

syrup contains flavorings, colorings, acid and preservative that are thoroughly mixed before-hand; syrup diluted with water and carbonated in pressurized CO2 vessel (carbo-cooler); liquid is packaged

Molasses

the residue remaining after sucrose crystals have been removed from the concentrated juices of the sugar cane or beet; sugar and mineral content of molasses depends on what point of he crystallization process it is derived; after first crystallization the molasses is light in color and high in sugar; blackstrap molasses is from the final process and is dark, bitter and relatively high in minerals

High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS)

typically 55% fructose, 45% glucose or 58% glucose, 42% fructose

Crystalline fructose

used mainly by food processors; thickens more rapidly and has greater gel strength then sucrose