Use of Artificial Sweeteners in Indian Traditional Dairy Products

Abstract

Artificial sweeteners possess high degree of sweetness and little calorific value. Their use in food products started ever since saccharin was discovered more than a century ago. In spite of some apprehensions about impact on health, they are being widely sold in market and even find legal sanction for use of some of them for edible purposes. Now, they are being tried in almost all the sweet products to replace sugar as sweetener. In some products such replacement is successful, while in some it is not because of flavor and stability related problems. Some workers are trying to promote the use of sweeteners by eliciting the synergistic action among the sweeteners. Milk based sweets are extremely popular in India and several efforts are being made to produce the sweets using artificial sweeteners in place of sugar. However, sugar replacement is definitely a disadvantage in many milk sweets prepared by heat desiccation, yet a consolation for those seeking low calorie foods or sugar free foods to satisfy their sweet palate. Use of the various artificial sweeteners in traditional milk sweets is described in this paper.