RELATIVE SWEETNESS OF SUCROSE AND DEXTROSEThe Bureau of Standards claims a relative sweetness for dextrose of about 75 per cent. of the sweetening power of sucrose. Dr. C. A. Browne presented a paper to the Thirtieth Annual Conference of the Association of Dairy, Food and Drug Officials of the United States in Washington, October, 1926. On Page 6 of the printed proceedings I find the following: "Gottloeb Kirchof about the year 1806 discovered that the starch of cereal grains from heating with acid could be converted into a crystallizable sugar. * * * The process as originally described by Kirchof consisted in beating 100 pounds of starch with 400 pounds of water and 1-1/2 pounds of strong sulphuric acid, boiling for a period of 25 hours with constant renewal of the evaporated water. After clarification the neutralized mass was evaporated to a thick syrup, set aside for several days until crystallization was complete. The inventor, Kirchof, made the following observation: 'Although starch sugar does not have the sweetness of ordinary sugar, the ratio of its sweetness to that of the latter being only 1 to 2-1/4, it can nevertheless replace cane sugar for many purposes.' Dr. Browne continues (page 11) "Certain advocates of 'corn sugar' have employed, as their measurement of its sweetness, the recently determined value of Biester, Wood and Wahlin for pure anhydrous dextrose which is 74.3 per cent of the sweetening power of sucrose.. This value is much higher than any reported by previous investigators. The values in the literature for the sweetness of anhydrous dextrose range from 40 to 74.3 per cent, the variations being due to the differences in the methods of determination and to differenes in individual taste perception. In such cases the only legitimate procedure is to take the average of the results of all observers and this average, including the very high figure of Biestor, Wood and Wahlin, for the nine determinations which I have found in the literature is 54.4 per cent. This value when corrected for the 8.43 per cent of water in 'corn sugar' gives a true value of 49.81 per cent for the sweetness of the product as compared with sucrose. In other words 'corn sugar' is only about one-half as sweet as cane and. beet sugar and twice as much of it must be used in food products as of cane or beet sugar, if the same degree of sweetness is to be obtained. This discussion of the subject by Dr. Browne is in strict conformity with scientific ethics and leads to a conclusion entirely different from that assumed by the Bureau of Standards. If dextrose is used for sweetening purposes, twice as much of it is required as.for ordinary sugar. If it is used as a, filler, that is an adulterant, the more you put in the better the purpose of its use is secured. This is the kind of sugar which the committee decided, chiefly under the influence of the Bureau of Standards, was the proper thing to offer the American consumer without notice of its presence. What a remarkable change from the attitude of the members of the Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee at the present time to that which characterized their deliberations in 1906!
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