Naturalne środki słodzące w świetle dopuszczalności ich spożycia w Polsce i krajach Unii Europejskiej

Piotr Kowalowski, Magdalena Kowalowska, Katarzyna Stanowska, Jan Burczyk

Summary
Natural sweeteners occuring in plants are substances which are alternative to sucrose, which is commonly known as a table sugar. They evoke less side-effects and usually they are less caloric than sugar. From the chemical point of view, they are polyols (sugar alcohol´s), flavonoid glycosides and peptides as well as diterpenoid and triterpenoid glycosides.
The degrees of sweetness of the above mentioned sweet products in comparison to sucruse, the sweetness of which is established as 1, are as follows: glycyrrhizin 50-100, stevioside 300, neoohesperidin 2000, thaumatin 3000.
Natural sweeteners are marked with a bloc letter E which is followed by number, for example: mannitol (E 421), sorbitol (E 420). These symbols are the same in Poland as well as all European Union countries.
Currently sweeteners admitted to the in Poland were determined Ministry of Health in a degree of 27 December 2000 [(Dz.U. Of 2 February 2001, No.9/72), with further changes], which is consistent with UE regulations.
Obtaining natural sweeteners is very important for diabetic therapy. Isolating them by classic methods is usually not profitable enough and require too much of plant material. If this is the case, methods of genetic engineering seem to be a better solution to this problem. It is possible to add genes responsible for producing sweetener to plants originally do not contain them. By changing genetic material of some plants, it is also possible to increase the production of a sweetener.

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