When adding sweetness to foods and beverages, many ingredient options exist. By Claudia Dziuk O’Donnell
Unlike the bitterness of coffee or the heat of peppers that people must learn to like, the preference for sweet products is innate among most mammals. It is theorized that this desire for sweetness gave a survival advantage to early man since sugars provide a quick source of energy. Fruits, for example, can contain significant amounts of energy (calories) in the form of sugars. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s searchable online database of food compositions (http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/) lists the total sugar content of raw pears as 9.8% (this is comprised 0.8% sucrose, 2.8% glucose and 6.2% fructose), bananas as 12.2% total sugars (2.4% sucrose, 5.0% glucose, 4.9% fructose), and dates (Deglet noor) as 63% total sugars (24% sucrose and 20% each of glucose and fructose). Indeed removal of water from fruits creates concentrated sources of natural sweeteners that food and beverage formulators can use. Examples include raisins and dried plums, other dehydrated fruits and fruit juice concentrates. For example, apple juice concentrate’s total sugar content is 38.8% and dried pears’ sugar content is 62.2%.