NutritiveNutritive SweetenersSweeteners FromFrom CornCorn CONTENTS Member Companies and Plant Locations ....................................... 2 Foreword .......................................................................................... 3 Historical Perspective ...................................................................... 4 Research and development orientation ....................................... 5 Technology aimed at needs .......................................................... 7 Growth, Development and Diversity ............................................. 7 CONTENTS Classification and Nutrition ............................................................ 9 Classification ................................................................................. 9 Corn sweeteners in nutrition ..................................................... 10 Technical Background ................................................................... 11 Corn starch ................................................................................. 11 Starch hydrolysis ........................................................................ 13 Crystalline dextrose .................................................................... 14 Dextrose isomerization .............................................................. 15 Manufacture ................................................................................... 17 Corn syrups ................................................................................ 17 Dried corn syrups ....................................................................... 18 Maltodextrins .............................................................................. 18 Dextrose monohydrate............................................................... 19 Dextrose anhydrous ................................................................... 19 High fructose corn syrups .......................................................... 19 Fructose ....................................................................................... 20 General Characteristics ................................................................. 21 Carbohydrate composition ........................................................ 22 Solids content.............................................................................. 23 Sweetness..................................................................................... 24 Properties and Uses ....................................................................... 25 Physical properties ..................................................................... 25 Solubility ..................................................................................... 26 Hygroscopicity ........................................................................... 26 Textural characteristics .............................................................. 26 Molecular properties................................................................... 27 Viscosity ...................................................................................... 30 Chemical properties ................................................................... 31 Fermentability ......................................................................... 31 Reducing characteristics .......................................................... 31 pH values of corn sweeteners ................................................. 34 Analytical Examination ................................................................ 34 Corn Refiners Association 1701 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20006-5805 202-331-1634 Fax: 202-331-2054 www.corn.org 1 8th Edition Copyright 2006 MEMBER COMPANIES PLANT LOCATIONS Archer Daniels Midland Company Plants: P.O. Box 1470 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404 Decatur, Illinois 62525 Clinton, Iowa 52732 Columbus, Nebraska 68601 Decatur, Illinois 62525 Marshall, Minnesota 56258-2744 Cargill, Incorporated Plants: P.O. Box 5662/MS 62 Blair, Nebraska 68008-2649 Minneapolis, Minnesota 55440-5662 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406-2638 Dayton, Ohio 45413-8001 Decatur, Alabama 35601 Eddyville, Iowa 52553-5000 Hammond, Indiana 46320-1094 Memphis, Tennessee 38113-0368 Wahpeton, North Dakota 58075 Corn Products International, Inc. Plants: 5 Westbrook Corporate Center Bedford Park, Illinois 60501-1933 Westchester, Illinois 60154 Stockton, California 95206-0129 Winton-Salem, North Carolina 27107 National Starch and Chemical Company Plants: 10 Finderne Avenue Indianapolis, Indiana 46221 Bridgewater, New Jersey 08807 North Kansas City, Missouri 64116 Penford Products Co. Plant: (A company of Penford Corporation) Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52404-2175 P.O. Box 428 Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52406 Roquette America, Inc. Plant: 1417 Exchange Street Keokuk, Iowa 52632-6647 Keokuk, Iowa 52632 Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas, Inc. Plants: (A subsidiary of Tate & Lyle, PLC ) Decatur, Illinois 62521 P.O. Box 151 Lafayette, Indiana 47902 Decatur, Illinois 62521 Lafayette, Indiana 47905 Loudon, Tennessee 37774 2 The taste of sweetness stands unique among our sensory perceptions. Delving into the roots of the word “sweet,” we find the Latin equivalent suavis—delightful—and the Greek root Hedys—pleasant. In Old English, these roots evolved into the word “swete,” from which our present term is drawn. FOREWORD Regardless of its name, humans have always sought the taste of sweetness. As the search for spices motivated earlier ex- plorers, so has the search for sweetness moved both people and institutions. For many years, these efforts concentrated on a tropical grass, sugar cane, and the sugar beet. But since the early 1800s, they have increasingly moved in the direction of a native American crop ... corn. Today, as this booklet de- tails, nutritive sweeteners from corn have become America’s premier sweeteners. Many years of meticulous research have brought the corn refining industry to this point. But by no means has the search for new forms and functions for corn sweeteners ended—it will continue, and the corn refining industry looks forward to playing a central role. Audrae Erickson President Corn Refiners Association Readers are advised that the information and suggestions con- tained herein are general in nature and that specific technical questions should be referred to the Association or member com- panies. Questions concerning the price and/or availability of products described should be directed to individual Association members. 3 The discovery that starch high fermentability. could be transformed into sweet substances by heating Though early success for with dilute acid is nearly 200 sugar from the beet source HISTORICAL years old. It was made in a appeared promising, PERSPECTIVE Russian ceramics laboratory Napoleons defeat at the by the chemist G.S.C. Battle of Waterloo lifted the Kirchoff who was seeking a blockade and most of the substitute for the Gum Ara- new sweetener activity bic that was then used as a ceased. Beet processing was soluble binder for clay. later revived under govern- ment subsidies. Subsequent work by other scientists demonstrated that The first commercial starch starch is a polymeric form of hydrolysis products ap- glucose that could be broken peared in the U.S. in 1842 down to D-glucose by hy- and reached significant pro- drolysis or conversion. And portions by 1857. While so the foundation was laid potatoes served as the early for a starch-derived sweet- source for starch and syrup, ener industry. dextrose (originally identi- fied as corn sugar and called Sweeteners were very much cast or chip sugar), was pro- in the public eye at the time duced from corn starch at a of Kirchoffs discovery. plant in Buffalo, New York France was at war with Brit- in 1866. In Europe, the ain and cane sugar imports starch industry developed from the West Indies had principally around potato been closed to her by the starchderived as a by-prod- British blockade of Euro- uct of a food cropbut in pean ports. The sugar short- the United States, it flour- age was so critical that Na- ished with the corn crop. poleon was under heavy Corn starch hydrolysis and political pressure to provide refining furnished a major an alternative ingredient to outlet for a raw material satisfy the well-developed used originally in over- French taste for sweets. whelming proportion for From this pressure came animal feed. In drawing on government financial sup- the native grain as a source port for investigating sugar of industrial products for production from both beets both feed and new food ap- and grapes. Starch sugar plications, the corn refining attracted interest in brewing industry has developed a and distilling because of its uniquely American identity 4 and presents a remarkable dextrose hydratethe end chapter in mans pursuit of product of complete starch sweetness. hydrolysis. The second was the commercialization of very low conversion prod- RESEARCH AND ucts (i.e., maltodextrins) in DEVELOPMENT the mid-1950s. With the ORIENTATION addition of these two prod- From its inception, the corn ucts, a wide spectrum of refining industry has been starch conversion ingredi- sensitive to the needs of its ents was now available to customers. In its early years, the food industry. much of the industrys effort was aimed at developing Sweetness differences re- sweeteners with widening mained a major challenge to application and appeal. In- the corn refining industry creasing industrialization of until the 1970s. This chal- the U.S. food system and lenge was met in a spectacu-