Tagatose

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Tagatose is a functional sweetener. It is a naturally occurring monosaccharide, specifically a hexose. It is often found in dairy products, and is very similar in shape and texture to sucrose (table sugar) and is 92% as sweet, but with only 38% of the calories.

Tagatose is Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) by the FAO/WHO and has been since 2001.

Since it is metabolized differently from sucrose, tagatose has a minimal effect on blood glucose and insulin levels.

Contents

[edit] How tagatose is made

Tagatose is present in only small amounts in dairy products. It can be produced commercially from lactose, which is first hydrolyzed to glucose and galactose. The galactose is isomerized under alkaline conditions to D-tagatose by calcium hydroxide. The resulting mixture can then be purified and solid tagatose produced by crystallization.

[edit] Development as a sweetener

Gilbert Levin upon learning about chirality, had the idea to search for a left-handed sugar. Cycling through the various left-handed sugars, he was accidentally sent D-tagatose, structurally similar to L-fructose. Even though Levin thought that his answer to a sweetener would be found in a left-handed sugar, it was the right-handed molecular form that proved to be a winner. FDA approved tagatose as a food additive in October,2003.

[edit] delay in bringing to market

In 1996, MD/Arla Foods acquired the rights to production from Spherix, the American license holder. In the following years, no products were brought to market by MD/Arla Foods and so Spherix brought them before the US Court of Arbitration for showing insufficient interest in bringing the product to market. The companies settled, with MD/Arla Foods agreeing to pay longer term royalties to Spherix and Spherix agreeing to not take further action. In March 2006, SweetGredients (a joint venture company of Arla Foods and Nordzucker AG) decided to put the tagatose project ”on hold”. SweetGredients was the only worldwide producer of tagatose. While progress has been made in creating a market for this innovative sweetener, it has not been possible to identify a large enough potential justifying continued investments and SweetGredients has decided to close down the manufacturing of tagatose in Nordstemmen, Germany.

[edit] Products using tagatose

[edit] Tagatose manufacturers

[edit] External links


Carbohydrates
General: Aldose | Ketose | Pyranose | Furanose
Geometry: Pentose | Hexose | Heptose | Equatorial bond | Axial bond | Anomer | Mutarotation
Small/Large: Glyceraldehyde | Dihydroxyacetone | Erythrose | Threose | Erythrulose | Sedoheptulose
Pentoses: Ribose | Arabinose | Xylose | Lyxose | Ribulose | Xylulose
Hexoses: Glucose | Galactose | Mannose | Gulose | Idose | Talose | Allose | Altrose | Fructose | Sorbose | Tagatose | Psicose | Fucose | Rhamnose
Disaccharides: Sucrose | Lactose | Trehalose | Maltose
Polymers: Glycogen | Starch | Cellulose | Chitin | Amylose | Amylopectin | Stachyose | Inulin | Dextrin
Glycosaminoglycans: Heparin | Chondroitin sulfate | Hyaluronan | Heparan sulfate | Dermatan sulfate | Keratan sulfate
Aminoglycosides: Kanamycin | Streptomycin | Tobramycin | Neomycin | Paromomycin | Apramycin | Gentamicin | Netilmicin | Amikacin
←Nucleic acids Major families of biochemicals Lipids→
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