Sucrose replacement: a sensory profile and time‐intensity analysis of a tamarind functional beverage with artificial and natural non‐nutritive sweeteners

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Tamarind pulp contains polyphenolic compounds that exert antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects with a positive impact on human health. The elaboration of a tamarind-based functional beverage, without the addition of sucrose, can be an alternative to traditional caloric beverages. This study aimed to evaluate the sensory profile and time intensity of a functional tamarind beverage containing artificial and natural non-nutritive sweeteners. RESULTS: The results of the acceptance test, check-all-that-apply, and time-intensity tests showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the means of samples sweetened with sucralose and samples sweetened with sucrose for attributes relating to appearance, aroma, flavor, or texture, or for overall impression. Samples with natural sweeteners had lower means for overall product impression and a lower percentage of purchase intention. The perception of astringency, bitter taste, and bitter aftertaste may be linked to the lower global impression of the product. The descriptors 'tamarind flavor' and 'refreshment sensation' were higher in products that were more liked. The sample sweetened with stevia showed higher levels of sweetness, bitterness, and longer sweet stimulus duration in the time-intensity test. CONCLUSION: The sample sweetened with sucralose was the best alternative to sucrose in the functional tamarind beverage. The analyzed sweeteners did not show changes in the perception of the natural characteristics of the fruit used, such as tamarind flavor, refreshment sensation, and astringency. However, the attributes related to sweet and bitter aftertaste experienced in samples with natural sweeteners may have influenced the reduction in the intention to purchase the product.

Temporal check‐all‐that‐apply on the sensory profiling of sucrose‐replaced sweetener blends of natural and synthetic origin

“…Additionally, other studies investigating the temporal profile of full sucrose replacement in beverage matrices have shown successful replacement of 10% and 10.7% with sucralose in orange juice and a tamarind‐based beverage, respectively, with only minor effects on the temporal sensory profile (Medeiros et al, 2022; Sousa Lima et al, 2021; Zorn et al, 2014), thus confirming the high level (%) of achievable replacement with sucralose observed in this study. However, significant changes in the temporal profile compared to the sucrose control were found when acesulfame‐K (Sousa Lima et al, 2021) and rebaudioside (Sousa Lima et al, 2021; Zorn et al, 2014) were added to these beverages. This suggests that sweeteners have different levels of applicability across different beverage matrices (Hossenlopp et al, 1990; Tan et al, 2020).…”

“…Temporal sensory methods make it possible to capture these distinctive lingering sensations and aftertaste attributes associated with sweeteners. Methods such as time–intensity and temporal dominance of sensations (TDS) have been used to evaluate the profiles of individual sweeteners and blends in both aqueous and model matrices (Ketelsen et al, 1993; Kim et al, 2015; Ott et al, 1991; Portmann & Kilcast, 1996; Tian et al, 2022; Wu et al, 2019) as well as in complex food matrices such as chocolates (Palazzo et al, 2011), whey beverages (Parker et al, 2018), and fruit beverages (Sousa Lima et al, 2021; Zorn et al, 2014). However, these methodologies only allow a single or few dominant attributes to be evaluated at a time, limiting the characterization of the temporal profile of sweeteners, which are usually accompanied by a variety of tastes and flavors, besides sweetness.…”

Approaches to Enhance Sugar Content in Foods: Is the Date Palm Fruit a Natural Alternative to Sweeteners?

“…In line with the above, artificial, non-nutritive sources are nowadays the most common alternatives [ 54 , 55 , 56 ]. However, despite being considered as calorie-free sources, they can sometimes involve metabolic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular diseases as well [ 57 , 58 ].…”

Metabolic Signatures from Genebank Collections: An Underexploited Resource for Human Health?

“…Importantly, wild relatives have been demonstrated to contain dramatically different sugar compositions for nearly all crops. Having this information will allow the breeding of crops with lower sugar compositions while identifying natural compounds that exhibit the same or even enhanced sweetness (Sousa Lima et al 2020) but have a lower caloric footprint. Future studies should incorporate the screening of these compounds within the accessions stored in genebanks.…”