Neotame: Intense Sweetener Overview

Neotame, a recent addition to the realm of sweeteners, is derived from aspartame and effectively functions as both a sweetener and flavor enhancer across a diverse range of food and beverage products. Its applications extend to baked goods, candies, chewing gum, dairy products, frozen desserts, puddings, yogurt-type items, and as a tabletop sweetener.

Constructed with two amino acids, L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine, coupled with an additional 3, 3-dimethylbutyl group, Neotame boasts a sweetness level that surpasses sugar by 7,000–13,000 times and aspartame by 30–60 times. Providing zero calories, it imparts a pure, sweet, sugar-like taste free from undesirable flavor characteristics. Due to their classification as intense sweeteners, both neotame and aspartame demand minimal quantities to achieve the desired level of sweetness in food products.

Thanks to its versatility, Neotame proves suitable for an extensive array of beverages and foods, whether used on its own or blended with other high-intensity or carbohydrate sweeteners. The incorporation of a t-butyl group into the free amine group of aspartic acid sets neotame apart, rendering it an attractive choice for food and beverage manufacturers. It delivers the sweetness of sugar without the metallic aftertaste, and its usage requires only a fraction of the amount compared to alternative sugar substitutes.

Neotame received FDA approval in 2002 as a general-purpose sweetener, with the exception of its use in meat and poultry. Moreover, it holds licenses as a food additive E 961 in the European Union since January 2010 and in Australia since as early as 2001.
Neotame: Intense Sweetener Overview

Aspartame in Soft Drinks

Aspartame is produced from L-phenylalanine and extremely popular low calorie peptide used as a sweetener in many countries.

Chemically aspartame is L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester.

The taste profile of aspartame is similar to sucrose sweetness. The maximum use level in soft drinks within the European Union is 600 mg/L, which means that, it can be used as the sole sweetener in soft drinks.

Although it is caloric (4 Kcal/g), its sweetness relative to sucrose (180-200) makes it an attractive very low calorie sweetener.

Aspartame is the key ingredient found in artificial sweeteners such as NutraSweet and Equal and is used to sweeten diet drinks such as Diet Coke and diet Pepsi along with laterally hundreds of other products.

The use of this sweetener was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration in 1981 after extensive testing, although there is still considerable controversy about its safety.
Aspartame in Soft Drinks

Phenylketonuria Should Stay Away From Aspartame

Phenylketonuria is area disease caused by the absence of an enzyme for dealing with amino acid phenylalanine, if it not detected.

The enzyme is PAH- phenylalanine hydroxylase that is necessary for the conversion of phenylalanine into tyrosine.

It is part of a group of disease that are inborn errors of metabolism.

Doctors usually detect phenylketonuria phenylketonuria in an infant within a few days of birth by way of a routine screening test.

If someone with phenylketonuria consumes significant amounts of food products containing phenylalanine, it builds up in the body and can cause mental impairment and possibly brain damage.

Individual with phenylketonuria must limit their intake of acid amino phenylalanine. The breakdown of aspartame in the digestive tract release phenylalanine, which cannot be properly metabolized by individuals with phenylketonuria.

Aspartame is composed of two amino acids, aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Foods that potentially contain it include carbonated beverages, drinks mixes, Jell-O and gelatin-type products, pudding and pie filling, and cold cereals.
Phenylketonuria Should Stay Away From Aspartame

Sweetener: Aspartame

Sweetener: Aspartame
A dipeptide, L-aspartyl-L-phenylalanine methyl ester (L-Asp-L-Phe-OMe), has recently been approved for use as a sweetener in North America (aspartame, “NutraSweet”).

It is as sweet as a number of other dipeptide esters of L-aspartame acid and D,L –aminomalonic acid.

The sweetening strength relative to saccharose is concentration dependent. Aspartame is used worldwide, though its stability is not always satisfactory.

Unlike sweetening of drinks (coffee or tea) which are drunk immediately, problems arise in the use of aspartame on food which has to be heated or in sweetened drinks which have to be stored for longer periods of time.

Possible degradation reactions involve alpha/beta rearrangement, hydrolysis into amino acid constitutions and cyclization to the 2,5 dioxopiperazine.
Sweetener: Aspartame