Sweeteners why so many

Sweeteners why so many

When you look at the ingredients of sugarfree sweets, it is amazing to see how many different artificial sweeteners there are.  Have you ever wondered why we need so many different products to replace sugar?  The answer is due to taste, how sweet the sweetener is and other physical properties.

Some sweeteners have a taste that makes them more suitable for particular carb free sweets.  An example of this is Stevia that is very sweet but has a slightly bitter after taste, which makes it ideal for chocolate as it complements the taste of the cocoa in the chocolate.

If a sweetener is very sweet compared to sugar, the manufacturer will need to use very little of it otherwise the sweets might be just too sweet!  So other sweeteners will be added as well to add balance to the product.

Eating sweets is a multi sensory experience so sugar free sweets need to have the texture of sugar sweets as well as the taste and this will influence the choice of sweeteners used.

The great variety of available sweeteners means that modern carb free sweets have the taste and texture of sugar sweets so unless you read the packet you might not realise that your treat is a sugar free sweet!