Characteristics:
It has the properties of Colorless, odorless, good fluidity, easy to use in beverages and foods as a substitute for sucrose. The basic syrups can improve textures and enhance colors without masking natural flavors, as in canned fruits.
Function:For human health, it can stimulate the metabolism of blood alcohol, which is helpful to prevent the damage caused by the excessive blood alcohol. A patient with 500ml fructose (40%) injection mainlined will gain good recovery. So in America it is gradually used in transfusion as a substitute for glucose .
Fructose is one of nutrition supplement for athletes and physical manual workers. It does not release or stimulate insulin. It stimulates production of another hormone, leptin, which helps to regulate our storage of body fat and increases our metabolism when needed. The burning process is slow and stable. The energy is released later, and the efficiency of storing glycogen in liver is 3 times higher. It is also a suitable diet source for diabetic for regulating glucose balance.
Fructose is one of natural carbohydrates that consist in fruits as well as in honey. With high sweet it can substitute for sucrose, which has some advantages:
(1)Fructose, also called "fruit sugar", is another important hexose found in many fruits and vegetables. Fructose satisfies the "sweet tooth", tasting twice as sweet as sucrose so it can be used in lower amounts. With good sweet sense and taste it is favorable for the use in carbonated drinks, beverages. It has already be used in some big drinks such as Coca Cola, Pepsi-Cola etc.
(2)It can improve textures and enhance colors without masking natural flavors, as in canned fruits and vegetables. So, it has already been a king of good sweetener in the beverage industry.
(3) With high osmosis it can penetrate cell membrane,which makes for preventing the growth of microorganisms in preserved fruits,jams. The flavors and colorness of the foods will be maintained well.
(4) it maintains moisture so cakes or breads keep soft , fresh without going stale and longer shelf life. But cake made with sucrose as source sugar will become dry and shapeless several days later.
(5) It can depress freezing to prevent crystal formation in ice cream and other frozen desserts and keep products soft and delicious.
(6) It can easily fermented by yeast so it is suitable to save process time and produce good taste for fermented foods. The microorganisms in mouth can hardly use fructose as a carbohydrate source so that it can not cause a carious tooth.
(7) Salad dressings and condiments pour at manageable rates because of the effect on viscosity. This syrups provide the suspension to keep other ingredients evenly mixed,and,like other corn products,With higher reduction activity than glucose it is more likely to have Maillard reaction and produce favorable color and taste in torrefied foods. Sucrose inverts glucose and fructose at acid condition,so it is usually called inverted sugarin industries. In carbonated drinks with pH sucrose 2.5~5,sucrose inverts nearly completely to be glucose and fructose within 2 or 3months at 25 . But fructose is stable at such circumstances.
(8) Metabolism :
Fructose can directly be absorbed by digestive system. The invalids,valetudinarian,pregnant women,and infants will benefit from this kind of sugar.
Application
Fructose is widely used in beverages,carbonated drinks,fruit drinks,breads,cakes,tinned fruits,jams,succades,dairy foods etc.
1.In beverages
1.1.The ordinary beverages ( no alcohol) is also called soft drinks including carbonated beverages,fruit drinks,teas,drinks, milk drinks etc.Frutose can add more taste and flavors to these kinds of foods with good transparency,purity,and stability. It is a qualified substitute for sucrose.
1.2. Alcoholic drinks such as wine,ciders,yellow wines carbonated liquors and Champangne that can be produced with fructose. The process of producing carbonated liquors and champagne can avoid deposition and turbidness and have good transparency .
2. In cold foods
As the sweet intensidy of Fructose increased at low temperature, It is suitable for cold foods . Lce-lolly and ice-cream produced with Fructose have sweet-scented flavor. However, the ice-cream shall be produced with the mix of Fructose and sucrose. It can also used in other cold drinks which have good flavor at low temperature.
3.In breads
It has so many advantages such as good fermentibility,moisture maintenance,and tenacity that it makes breads soft sense and good texture.
The bread is a kind of food from fermentation.When the Fructose substitutes sucrose, Mailard reaction brings more favorable color and flavors to breads , shorten fermentation time and have bulk gas. So , it is soft and have good intension and structure With higher reduction activity than glucose it is more likely to have Maillard reaction and produce favorable color and taste
It helps to prevent going stale during bread storage and keeps longer shelf life .
4.In cakes
with good moisture maintenance of Fructose Syrup, Upon test, breads made with Fructose can be stored for 30 days maintaining soft and fresh. It is better than that with sucrose. However, breads made with sucrose will become dry several days later, longer days later,the surface of the bread will crash.
5. In confections
There are not much advantages to produce hard sweets with fructose because of its hygroscopicity and active reduction. But it may well be used in some soft sweets if carefully prepared.
6.In canned fruits
With high osmosis, it makes for soaking in fruits and getting a concentration balance through the fruits,which help to keep the stability and freshness of the products without the damage caused by pH.
7. In succades,fruit jams
With high osmosis it penetrates the fruits quickly,which saves the processing time. Mixture of sucrose and fructose will bring bright color on fruits. Also,it can provide a good storage condition for succades,fruit jams etc.
8. In pharmaceutic products and health products
8.1 It provides some nutrition and taste for officinal syrup such as : Cough Syrup,LoquatSyrup.
8.2 With its high solubility, it can be used in officinal wines and have good flavor.
9. In health foods
It adds more nutrition and function to health foods for valetudinarian,infants and also prevents the cariosity of children.
As a special antidote it may promote the active function of livers to release the harmful from huma body.
Athletes and manual works will benefit from this kind of nutrition.
It may promote the catabolism of alcohol,which may protect human body from the damage caused by excessive drinking.
The research reports have showed that there are many beneficial curative effects for the patients with hepatitis,hepatocirrhosis and heart disease etc.
