Sugar substitute prepared with nutritive and high-intensity sweeteners

Abstract

A sweetener composition and a method of producing it. The composition contains granules having a core and a layer on the core. The core contains one or more nutritive sweeteners, such as sucrose, and the layer on the core contains sucralose. The layer may optionally contain a binder and/or non-nutritive sweeteners in addition to sucralose. The composition may contain (other than materials of no essential significance) only such granules, or it may include such granules admixed with granules containing only nutritive sweeteners (such as sucrose). Compositions of the invention may exhibit a variety of advantages, including good sweetness homogeneity and good stability under accelerated aging conditions.

1 . A sweetener composition, the composition comprising granules having (a) a core including a nutritive sweetener, and (b) on the core, a layer including sucralose.  
     
     
         2 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the layer consists essentially of sucralose.  
     
     
         3 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the layer includes sucralose and a binder.  
     
     
         4 . The composition of  claim 3 , wherein the binder comprises sucrose.  
     
     
         5 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the layer consists essentially of sucralose and a binder.  
     
     
         6 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the sucralose constitutes between about 30 wt % and 50 wt % of the layer.  
     
     
         7 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the sucralose constitutes between about 0.1 wt % and 50 wt % of the composition.  
     
     
         8 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the sucralose constitutes between about 0.1 wt % and 0.5 wt % of the composition.  
     
     
         9 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the sucralose constitutes between about 1 wt % and 5 wt % of the composition.  
     
     
         10 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the layer includes sucralose dispersed in sucrose.  
     
     
         11 . The composition of  claim 3 , wherein the binder consists essentially of sucrose.  
     
     
         12 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the nutritive sweetener comprises sucrose.  
     
     
         13 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the nutritive sweetener consists essentially of sucrose.  
     
     
         14 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the composition consists essentially of the granules.  
     
     
         15 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the composition comprises the granules and a nutritive sweetener.  
     
     
         16 . The composition of  claim 15 , wherein the nutritive sweetener comprises sucrose.  
     
     
         17 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the layer includes a sucralose-binder solid solution.  
     
     
         18 . The composition of  claim 1 , wherein the layer includes particles consisting essentially of sucralose, the particles dispersed within the layer.  
     
     
         19 . The composition of  claim 5 , wherein both the binder and the nutritive sweetener are sucrose, and wherein a 14-day accelerated aging of the composition yields an aged composition having a Hunter “a” value no greater than 0.2 units higher than a Hunter “a” value of the composition before aging.  
     
     
         20 . The composition of  claim 5 , wherein both the binder and the nutritive sweetener are sucrose, and wherein a 14-day accelerated aging of the composition yields an aged composition having a Hunter “a” value no greater than 0.1 units higher than a Hunter “a” value of the composition before aging.  
     
     
         21 . The composition of  claim 5 , wherein both the binder and the nutritive sweetener are sucrose, and wherein a 14-day accelerated aging of the composition yields an aged composition having a Hunter “b” value no greater than 1.0 units higher than a Hunter “b” value of the composition before aging.  
     
     
         22 . A method of making a sweetener composition, the method comprising the steps of: 
 (a) providing a plurality of granular cores each comprising sucrose; and    (b) forming on the granular cores a layer comprising sucralose.    
     
     
         23 . The method of  claim 22 , wherein step (b) comprises pan-coating the granular cores with an aqueous mixture comprising the sucralose and drying the coated cores to form at least a portion of the sweetener composition.  
     
     
         24 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising adding granular sucrose to the at least a portion of the sweetener composition.  
     
     
         25 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein substantially all of the sucralose in the aqueous mixture is dissolved in the mixture.  
     
     
         26 . The method of  claim 23 , further comprising repeating step (b) at least once.  
     
     
         27 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the drying is performed at a temperature between about 52° C. and 66° C.  
     
     
         28 . The method of  claim 23 , wherein the aqueous mixture further comprises a binder.  
     
     
         29 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the binder consists essentially of sucrose, and wherein the aqueous mixture comprises between 20 wt % and 60 wt % water, between 15 wt % and 55 wt % sucrose, and between 15 wt % and 35 wt % sucralose.  
     
     
         30 . The method of  claim 28 , wherein the binder consists essentially of sucrose, and wherein the aqueous mixture comprises between 35 wt % and 45 wt % water, between 31 wt % and 41 wt % sucrose, and between 18 wt % and 28 wt % sucralose.  
     
     
         31 . A sweetener composition made by a method comprising the steps of: 
 (a) providing a plurality of granular cores each comprising sucrose; and    (b) forming on the granular cores a layer comprising sucralose and sucrose by coating the granular cores with an aqueous mixture comprising the sucrose and the sucralose and drying the coated cores to form the sweetener composition.