Tagatose is a functional sweetener. It is a naturally occurring
monosaccharideMonosaccharides are the most basic unit of carbohydrates. They are the simplest form of sugar and are usually colorless, water-soluble, crystalline solids. Some monosaccharides have a sweet taste. Examples of monosaccharides include glucose , fructose , galactose, xylose and ribose...
, specifically a
hexoseIn organic chemistry, a hexose is a monosaccharide with six carbon atoms, having the chemical formula C
6H
12O
6. Hexoses are classified by functional group, with aldohexoses having an aldehyde at position 1, and ketohexoses having a ketone at position...
. It is often found in dairy products, and is very similar in texture to
sucroseSucrose, commonly called table sugar, is a moosaccharide of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula C12H22O11. This white, odorless, crystalline powder has a pleasing, sweet taste. It is best known for its role in human nutrition...
(table sugar) and is 92% as sweet, but with only 38% of the
calorieThe calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. The unit was first defined by Professor Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat. This definition entered French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
s.
Tagatose is
generally recognized as safeGenerally recognized as safe is an American Food and Drug Administration designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts, and so is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act food additive tolerance requirements.GRAS exemptions are granted...
(GRAS) by the FAO/
WHO*Who is an English language interrogative pronoun.-In fiction:*Who? , a 1958 novel by science fiction author Algis Budrys, turned into a film with the same title in 1973*Doctor Who, a British science fiction television series...
and has been since 2001.
Since it is metabolized differently from sucrose, tagatose has a minimal effect on blood glucose and
insulinInsulin is a hormone that has extensive effects on metabolism and other body functions, such as vascular compliance. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stopping use of fat as an energy...
levels.
Tagatose is a functional sweetener. It is a naturally occurring
monosaccharideMonosaccharides are the most basic unit of carbohydrates. They are the simplest form of sugar and are usually colorless, water-soluble, crystalline solids. Some monosaccharides have a sweet taste. Examples of monosaccharides include glucose , fructose , galactose, xylose and ribose...
, specifically a
hexoseIn organic chemistry, a hexose is a monosaccharide with six carbon atoms, having the chemical formula C
6H
12O
6. Hexoses are classified by functional group, with aldohexoses having an aldehyde at position 1, and ketohexoses having a ketone at position...
. It is often found in dairy products, and is very similar in texture to
sucroseSucrose, commonly called table sugar, is a moosaccharide of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula C12H22O11. This white, odorless, crystalline powder has a pleasing, sweet taste. It is best known for its role in human nutrition...
(table sugar) and is 92% as sweet, but with only 38% of the
calorieThe calorie is a pre-SI metric unit of energy. The unit was first defined by Professor Nicolas Clément in 1824 as a unit of heat. This definition entered French and English dictionaries between 1841 and 1867. In most fields its use is archaic, having been replaced by the SI unit of energy, the joule...
s.
Tagatose is
generally recognized as safeGenerally recognized as safe is an American Food and Drug Administration designation that a chemical or substance added to food is considered safe by experts, and so is exempted from the usual Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act food additive tolerance requirements.GRAS exemptions are granted...
(GRAS) by the FAO/
WHO*Who is an English language interrogative pronoun.-In fiction:*Who? , a 1958 novel by science fiction author Algis Budrys, turned into a film with the same title in 1973*Doctor Who, a British science fiction television series...
and has been since 2001.
Since it is metabolized differently from sucrose, tagatose has a minimal effect on blood glucose and
insulinInsulin is a hormone that has extensive effects on metabolism and other body functions, such as vascular compliance. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle, and stopping use of fat as an energy...
levels. Tagatose is also approved as a
toothfriendlyToothfriendly products are safe for teeth. To replace sugar, toothfriendly products often contain sweeteners that are not fermented by the microflora of the dental plaque. Products that are certified as toothfriendly also do not contain excessive amounts of food acids...
ingredient.
Production
Tagatose is present in only small amounts in dairy products. It can be produced commercially from
lactoseLactose is a sugar that is found most notably in milk. Lactose makes up around 2–8% of milk , although the amount varies among species and individuals. It is extracted from sweet or sour whey...
, which is first hydrolyzed to
glucoseGlucose , a monosaccharide also known as - grape sugar, blood sugar, or corn sugar, is a very important carbohydrate in biology. The living cell uses it as a source of energy and metabolic intermediate...
and
galactoseGalactose is a type of sugar which is less sweet than glucose. It is considered a nutritive sweetener because it has food energy. Its name comes from the Ancient Greek word for milk, γάλακτος ....
. The galactose is
isomerIn chemistry, isomers are compounds with the same molecular formula but different structural formulas. The word is derived from the Greek ισομερης, isomerès; isos = "equal", méros = "part"....
ized under alkaline conditions to
D-tagatose by
calcium hydroxideCalcium hydroxide, traditionally called slaked lime, hydrated lime, slack lime, or pickling lime, is a chemical compound with the chemical formula Ca2. It is a colourless crystal or white powder, and is obtained when calcium oxide is mixed, or "slaked" with water...
. The resulting mixture can then be purified and solid tagatose produced by crystallization.
Development as a sweetener
Gilbert LevinGilbert Levin is an American engineer, the founder of Spherix and famous for experiments on Mars soil by the Viking Program and the development of tagatose.Levin is a member of the "International Committee Against Mars Sample Return" .....
, upon learning about
chiralityThe term chiral is used to describe an object that is non-superposable on its mirror image. Achiral objects are objects that are identical to their mirror image....
, 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.
Marketing
In 1996, MD/
Arla FoodsArla Foods is a Swedish-Danish cooperative based in Århus, Denmark, and the largest producer of dairy products in Scandinavia. Arla was formed as the result of a merger between the Swedish dairy cooperative Arla and the Danish dairy company MD Foods on 17 April 2000. Arla Foods is owned by...
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, 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 to justify continued investments, and SweetGredients has decided to close down the manufacturing of tagatose in Nordstemmen, Germany.
In 2006, the Belgian Company NUTRILAB NV took over the Arla (Sweetgredients) stocks and project, and is setting up a production site for
D-tagatose with the brand name Nutrilatose, with an enzymatic process method (different from the already published patents). Dambert N.V., the mother company of Nutrilab, has released the tagatose based sweetener Tagatesse under its own brand name, along with some other products (jams and some chocolate-based products) using on tagatose in October 2007 in the Benelux and France.
Tagatose has been aproved in Europe as a
novel foodNovel food is defined as a type of food that does not have a significant history of consumption or is produced by a method that has not previously been used for food.-European Union:...
since December 14, 2005. However, the calorie content of 1.5 kcal/g approved in the USA, Canada, South Africa, is passed by the EU food council to EFSA (European Food Safety Agency) for opinion.
External links