1.

WHAT IS YOUR INFERENCE ABOUT THE CASE

STUDY? PROVIDE 15-20 SENTENCES.
Sugar substitutes are chemical or plant-based sweeteners and taste enhancers for foods
and beverages. You may have heard them referred to as "artificial sweeteners" or "non-
caloric sweeteners," and they can be used as a table top sweetener (for example, to
sweeten a glass of iced tea) or as an ingredient in processed foods and beverages. So in
this study case, because of the high caloric value of sucrose, it is often difficult to satisfy a
demanding “sweet tooth” with sucrose without adding pounds to the body frame or inches
to the waistline. Sugar substitutes, which provide virtually no calories, are now used
extensively as a solution to the “sucrose problem”. There are two widely used sugar
substitutes, these are saccharin and aspartame. Saccharin is the oldest of the artificial
sweeteners, having been in use for more than 100 years. Questions about its safety arose
in 1977 after a study suggested that large doses of saccharin cause bladder tumors in rats.
So as a result, the FDA banned the use of this sugar substitute, but public support for its
used caused Congress to impose a moratorium on the ban. In 1991, on the basis of many
further studies, the FDA withdrew the banning of saccharin. Saccharin is 300 times sweeter
than sucrose and relatively inexpensive to produce. Sweet’NLow and Sugar Twin are
saccharin-based commercial products. Aspartame (NutraSweet), approved by the FDA in
1981, is used in both the United States and Canada and accounts for three-fourths of
current sugar-substitutes use. It tastes like sucrose but is 180 times sweeter. It provides 4
kcal/g, as does sucrose, but because so little is used, its calorie contribution is negligible.
Aspartame has quickly found its way into almost every diet food on the market today.
Aspartame as well as saccharine are not heat-stable and therefore cannot be used in
products that require cooking. The safety of aspartame lies with its hydrolysis products: the
amino acids aspartic acid and phenylalanine. These amino acids are identical to those
obtained from digestion of proteins. The only danger aspartame poses is that it contains
phenylalanine, amino acid that can lead to mental retardation among young children
suffering from PKU (phenylketonuria). Labels on all products containing aspartame warn
phenylketonurics of this potential danger. Sucralose, approved by the FDA in 1990, is a
derivative of sucrose. It is synthesized from sucrose by substitution of three chlorine atoms
for hydroxyl groups. An advantage of sucralose use of aspartame is that sucralose is heat-
stable and can therefore be used in cooked food. Aspartame loses its sweetness when
heated. Sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sucrose and has similar taste. It is calorie-free
because it cannot be hydrolyzed as it passes through the digestive tract. So there’s a new
sugar substitute working its way into the marketplace called neotame. Heat-stable, and can
be used in a wide variety of products including baked goods, frostings, puddings, and fruit
juices with a sweetness 7000 times greater than a sucrose, so it need small amounts to
sweeten the products means its caloric impact is negligible and its economic savings also
occurs because of the small amounts required.
2. ON YOUR OWN IDEA, WHAT DO YOU THINK IS THE
BEST SUGAR SUBSTITUTE? WHY?
In my own idea I think the best sugar substitute is the “Sucralose”. Sucralose is 600 times
sweeter than sucrose and has similar taste. It is calorie-free because it cannot be
hydrolyzed as it passes through the digestive tract.