What are the multiple identities and characteristic applications of polydextrose?

Polydextrose is a low-calorie, low-glycemic index of special compounds with water-soluble dietary fiber and prebiotics, which is made of naturally-occurring glucose and a small amount of sorbitol, citric acid by high-temperature melting and condensation, which is randomly crosslinked glucose composed of polysaccharides.
Let’s first take a look at what classification polydextrose actually belongs to.
Multiple identities of polydextrose
1. Ordinary food: on November 28, 2014, the national health planning and food department on the polydextrose related issues in the reply letter clearly pointed out that polydextrose can be managed as ordinary food ingredients
2. Food additives: “GB2760 National Standard for Food Safety, Standard for the Use of Food Additives” lists polydextrose as a thickener, bulking agent, water retention agent, stabilizer. The scope of use is relatively wide, and not limited.
3. Nutritional enhancers: According to the provisions of GB 14880-2012 National Standard for Food Safety Standard for the Use of Food Nutritional Enrichment, polydextrose can be used as a nutritional enhancer in infant formula. And the usage amount is 15.6-31.25 g/kg.
Characteristics of polydextrose
1. High water solubility Polydextrose is easily soluble in water, and it can dissolve about 80% when the temperature reaches 25℃, and the solubility is stronger when the temperature rises. Unlike ordinary fiber fillers, polydextrose dissolves faster, if food grade KHCO3 is added to form polydextrose-K. The dissolution speed will be further.
2. Solution viscosity Under the same concentration, the viscosity of polydextrose solution is higher than sucrose solution and sorbitol solution. The viscosity of polydextrose solution decreases with the increase of temperature, and this property is very similar to sucrose solution, so it causes polydextrose to replace sugar or lipid in the taste and texture of food.
3. Humidifying temperature is relatively high, polydextrose in solid state will fully absorb water, so polydextrose can also be used as a humectant of food, control the humidity change of food, and play a certain role in preservation.
Taking steamed food as an example, the good water locking effect of polydextrose can prevent water loss, thus making the steamed food particles more full. This characteristic is very suitable for staple foods that need to be steamed in a pot, such as rice and steamed bread.
4.Taste itself polydextrose has no sweet taste, but can be used with high sweetness and low-calorie sweeteners to make low-calorie sweets, at the same time, if the concentration is too high, it will produce a bad flavor, so it should not be put into the too much, but also can be added to other flavorings to eliminate the taste.
5. Stability Polydextrose is very stable, microorganisms are difficult to survive in it. When the relative humidity is 75%, the concentration will shrink to 80%; when the relative humidity is 52%, the concentration can shrink to 90%. The color will be darkened if it is left for a long time under high temperature, so it should be placed in a closed container with low temperature.
Application of polydextrose
1.Polydextrose is used in health food industry According to the announcement of the General Administration of Market Supervision on the release of “Regulations on the Available Excipients and Their Use in Health Food Products for the Record (2019 Edition)”, polydextrose is a kind of health food ingredient, which can be used in the appropriate amount in the production of solid and liquid preparations according to the needs of production.
Because polydextrose has a low calorie value (1kcal/g), it can be used in the production of low-energy, slimming and weight loss health food for beauty lovers or young women.
2. Polydextrose is used to enhance the quality of yogurt Polydextrose, as a kind of water-soluble dietary fiber with health care function, is most commonly used to be added into dairy products to enhance the nutritional health care function and taste of dairy products.
A study shows that polydextrose and sugar compounded at a ratio of 4:5 and added to fresh cow’s milk fermented into yogurt, found that the curd is uniform without whey precipitation, the color is white porcelain color, flavor, taste are better, and can obviously promote the proliferation of lactic acid bacteria in yogurt, can change the organization of the product state, to improve the flavor of the milk, and has the effect of promoting bifidobacteria proliferation, which can complement the nutritional health functions of yogurt, can greatly improve the quality of yogurt, make it more nutritious. It greatly improves the quality of yogurt and makes this kind of yogurt more competitive in the market.
3. Application of Polydextrose in Ice Cream Polydextrose has become a kind of application trend of functional ice cream because of its excellent fat replacing function. The researchers replaced 20% and 40% of margarine with polydextrose under the premise of keeping other ingredients unchanged, and measured its expansion rate and other indexes.
The experimental results show that polydextrose can replace part of the fat in the ice cream, with no significant effect on the taste and texture of the ice cream, and the process performance is also similar to that of the unsubstituted ice cream products, but with a significant reduction in calories. This suggests that the use of polydextrose in functional ice cream will make the ice cream more health-care functions without affecting the sensory and quality evaluation.
4.Application of polydextrose in baked food Polydextrose is also widely used in baked food such as cake. There are experiments to use polydextrose and AK sugar to replace 25%, 50%, 75%, l00% of sucrose in cakes, respectively, and the experiments proved that the chromaticity of the replaced products is slightly lighter than that of the non-replaced products, and the pH value is not much different, which is around 5.4.
Sensory tasting results showed that after substitution the product had a soft texture and good moisturization, similar to the product before substitution, while the volume of the cake was larger than that of the non-substituted sample, i.e., the expansion was large, and there was no difference in appearance, and it had a fine texture and good flavor. The greater the percentage of substitution, the better the elasticity and the less the hardness.
Thus it is proved that polydextrose can be used to replace sucrose in the production of low-calorie cakes without affecting the process properties of the finished products.
5.Application of polydextrose in confectionery Polydextrose is also a good ingredient for sugar-free confectionery with good tolerance. High water solubility and high viscosity, to ensure that hard candy and gummy candy good chewing; can prevent than crystallization, especially the use of sugar alcohols candy; non-cariogenic, suitable for dental candy.
Add polydextrose sucrose candy, play a role in strengthening the fiber, prebiotics, reduce the role of sucrose, but also to reduce calories or reduce the total glucose production value.
6. Polydextrose in beverage applications polydextrose has good water solubility, low pH and heating conditions, high stability, stability in the shelf life, no loss of fiber and other excellent characteristics, widely used in beverage products (including solid beverages) without bad taste, color and transparency are good, and can enhance the taste of sugar-free or low-sugar beverages.