In 1965, an experimenter at Hilary Pharmaceuticals LLC, who wiped his mouth without washing his hands while developing a stomach ulcer drug, discovered methyl aspartyl phenylalanine, commonly known as aspartame, which is 200 times sweeter than sucrose, and which is often used in beverages because of its poor heat stability.

Later, people did something to aspartame to make it 7,000-13,000 times sweeter than sucrose, commonly known as neotame, which is currently the sweetest food additive.

Safety

Nutella is made from aspartame, and its properties are similar to aspartame in many ways. There has been a great deal of controversy about the side effects of aspartame, one of which has been identified as being that aspartame produces phenylalanine when metabolized in the body, making it unsuitable for the intake of people with phenylketonuria and requiring a special statement in the label.

Because Newt’s uses less as compared to aspartame, and because the Newt’s molecule contains the 3,3-dimethylbutyl group, which is able to almost completely block the function of this peptidase enzyme, thus reducing the formation of phenylalanine, Newt’s does not need to make a special trademark labeling when it is added to the food.

Newt’s research reports that Newt’s is metabolized in the body by de-esterification to form de-esterified Newt’s and trace amounts of methanol, which are quickly cleared from the plasma and finally excreted completely from the feces and urine.

Usage Overview

GB2760-2014 National Standard for Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Additives stipulates that neotame can be added to many foods including baked goods, beverages, dairy products and so on. Except for tabletop sweeteners, candies and ready-to-eat cereals, the maximum permitted additive amount of neotame is less than or equal to 0.1g/kg, which is mainly related to the high sweetness of neotame and the actual need to add less.

In the daily inspection, it is found that compared with other sweeteners, Newtonsweet is rarely detected in food, indicating that it is not widely used in the food industry, summarizing the reasons may be the following:

1, New sweet is a new product, China began to use from 2003, compared with other traditional sweeteners, need some time to promote and accept;

2, Newt sweet is the patent of the United States Newt company, the monopoly of production before the end of 2013 led to Newt sweet price is higher, the cost-effective advantage is not obvious; the expiration of the U.S. patent, many manufacturers have not yet had time to adjust the formula;

3, Newt sweet has the characteristics of sweetness lag, but can be improved by compounding with other sweeteners;

4, its sweetness is too high, in the food allowed to add a lower limit, a small amount of separate use of weighing is not convenient, for small and medium-sized enterprises will not be good to control the dosage.

Application in food

①Application in all kinds of beverages

a. Carbonated beverages

NutriSweet can be used in cola-type carbonated beverages for 16 weeks, which is consistent with the shelf life of low-energy carbonated beverages sold in the market, and it can also be used in lemonade, root juice and other beverages.

b. Non-carbonated beverages

Nutella can be used in hot-filled lemon tea, solid powdered drinks, yogurt and other foods, and in these foods are very stable and good quality traits.

②Application in dairy products

Nutella can be used in dairy products, ice cream and other frozen desserts, when used in such products, when the end of the shelf life of such products, it was found that only 2% of the loss of Nutella, which has no effect on the acceptability of the product, while other sweet wattle rarely reach this level, Nutella is particularly suitable for the production of yogurt.

③Applications in baked goods

Unlike aspartame, neotame can be stabilized under the condition of instantaneous high temperature, so it can be used in all kinds of baked foods such as cookies, cakes, chocolate cakes, etc. For example, in the production of cakes, after 4 hours, neotame can be stabilized under the condition of instantaneous high temperature. For example, in the production of cake, after baking at a high temperature of 450 ℃, 85% of the neotame still exists; and at 25 ℃, relative humidity of 60% of the place of storage for 5d, there is only 4% of the loss of neotame, in fact, even if the loss of 20% will not have an impact on the product.

④Application in chewing gum

Since the energy value of neotame is almost 0, and does not produce dental caries, it is suitable for the production of sugar-free chewing gum, which is not only suitable for diabetics, but also has no damaging effect on teeth. The stability of Nutella in chewing gum can be improved by microencapsulation, and the two-layer coating of modified starch and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose can keep it from degrading during 52 weeks of storage.

⑤ Applications in tabletop sweeteners

Because it is not hygroscopic and has low energy, it is very suitable for use as a tabletop sweetener. Studies have shown that it can be stored for at least 156 weeks when used as a tabletop sweetener.

(6)Application in Ice Cream

Ice cream made with Nutella has excellent solubility characteristics and structure, and its sweetness is pure without aftertaste.

Unlike aspartame, neotame can be used with certain reducing sugars, such as glucose, fructose, lactose, etc.; it can also be used with aldehyde-based flavor substances, such as vanilla.
It can also be used together with aldehyde-based flavor substances, such as vanilla, cinnamon, lemon and so on. It is used in candy, cereal, jelly and other products, and studies have shown that it has good characteristics in these food applications.

How to improve solubility in water

Although Newtonsweet has many excellent properties, its solubility in water is not high, and the dissolution rate is small, which limits the application of Newtonsweet in food production to a certain extent.

In general, 0.05 to 0.19 neotame takes 5 to 7 min (observed with the naked eye) to completely dissolve in 100 mL of water, 0.1 to 0.2 g of neotame takes 5 to 8 min (observed with the naked eye) to completely dissolve in 100 mL of water, and 1 g of neotame takes about 45 min to completely dissolve in 100 mL of water.

Since Newtonsweet is often used in aqueous solutions and beverages, improving the solubility and dissolution rate of Newtonsweet in water is of great significance for expanding the scope of Newtonsweet’s application in industry and increasing its economic value. The following introduces several methods to improve the solubility of Newtonsweet in water.

(1) New sweet and hydrochloric acid compound

Take a certain amount of Newtonsweet into the water, mix thoroughly until it becomes slurry, and then slowly add an equal amount of hydrochloric acid to it, after about 10min, all the solids are dissolved, and then the clarified solution can be obtained by freeze-drying the white solid, the yield is 99.7%.

Compared with the starting material, neotame, the product showed great water solubility, and it took only 70 s for 1 g of the product to completely dissolve in 100 mL of water.

(2) New sweet and phosphoric acid compound

Take a certain amount of Newt’s sweet dissolved in water, stirring to make it a slurry, and then add equimolar 85% phosphoric acid solution, after all the solids are dissolved, the solution will be freeze-dried, the resulting product is a white solid, the yield is 98%. The water solubility of the product has been greatly improved, 0.1g of the product in less than 30s can be completely melted in 100mL of water (visual observation).

(3) New sweet and citric acid complex

A certain amount of Newt sweet dissolved in acetone, slowly add equal moles of citric acid aqueous solution, and then add an appropriate amount of acetone can form a clear colorless solution, the solution stirred for 1h, and then remove the acetone distillation under reduced pressure, the remaining pulp can be obtained by freeze-drying the white solid.

0.1g of such a white solid dissolves in 100mL of water in 90s (observed with the naked eye).

(4) New sweet and sodium bicarbonate compound

Dissolve a certain amount of sodium bicarbonate in water, add equal moles of neotame, the resulting slurry liquid stirring for 24h can be clarified solution, freeze-drying to obtain a white solid is the target product.

0.1g of white solid can be completely dissolved in 100mL of water instantly (visual observation).