ANALYSIS OF VARIOUS SWEETENERS IN PETIT SUISSE CHEESE: DETERMINATION OF THE IDEAL AND EQUIVALENT SWEETNESS

ABSTRACT For a sweetener to successfully replace sucrose in food formulations, studies must first determine the necessary concentration of the sweetener to be used and its equivalent sweetness to sucrose. In this study, we verified both the equivalent sweetness and the magnitude of sweetness of processed cheese sweetened with different sweeteners and combinations of sweeteners. A total of four formulations were evaluated: sucralose, sucralose/acesulfame‐K (4:1), thaumatin/sucralose (2:1) and cyclamate/saccharin (1:1). First, the sweetness was determined using the ideal scale. Next, we determined the equivalent sweetness compared to sucrose (considered to be ideal in terms of sweetness) for each sweetener studied and evaluated its sweetness through the magnitude estimation method. The concentration of sucrose considered ideal in strawberry petit suisse was 17%. To promote a sweetness equivalent to the ideal (17% sucrose) sucralose, sucralose/acesulfame‐K (4:1), thaumatin/sucralose (2:1) and cyclamate/saccharin (1:1) sweeteners should be added to processed cheese at concentrations of 0.065%, 0.066%, 0.108% and 0.349%, respectively. PRACTICAL APLICATIONS The purpose of this work is to study the use of sweeteners, including thaumatin in petit suisse. The study of sweeteners in this product is important because currently consumers yearn for more healthy products and the fact of not having many studies related to this product. Therefore, this work supports the development of a new product, with more consumer desires and contributing to the competitiveness of the market.