OPTIMIZATION OF HFDS PRODUCTION FROM DATE SYRUP (RESEARCH NOTE)

Fructose is utilized as a common sweetener in many food industries. Today, a large amount of HFCS (high fructose corn syrup, an equilibrium mixture of glucose and fructose) is produced by glucose isomerase, immobilized enzymes from corn starch. There are a lot of date palms in Iran. Date is a favorable source of carbohydrates, and a suitable source for HFDS (high fructose date syrup) production. In this investigation, date syrup properties were first determined and the operational conditions for glucose isomerase application were optimized respectively. Ion exchange chromatography has been utilized for carbohydrate separation. Fructose obtained fromchromatographic column reached 90 % fructose syrup and glucose obtained was converted to fructose (42 % conversion) in a fixed bed glucose isomerase enzyme reactor. A mixture of this equilibriumsyrup with fructose syrup obtained from chromatographic column produced 55 % fructose syrup.