Measuring sweetness

According to my textbook, sucralose is about 500 times sweeter than sucrose. How is this measured? Does one have to use blind taste tests, or is there a quantitative chemical way of measuring sweetness?




According to *Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry,* the determination of sweetness intensities requires sensory tests. Therefore, panellists are used, which have to be adapted to the test procedures according to their sensory abilities. The results have to be evaluated on a statistical basis because of individual variations in sweetness perception.


The sweetness intensity factor (or sweetness power) is the factor by which an sucrose solution with equal sweetness is more concentrated than a solution of the sweetener. However, such sweetness intensities depend on the sweetener concentration and the sucrose concentration used for comparison. Commonly used values are often based on comparison with sucrose solutions with a concentration of 0.1 mol/l or similar.


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