How to Make Erythritol

Erythritol is a sugar alcohol that is very low in calories and has little effect on blood sugar levels. Because erythritol retains about 60 to 80 percent of the sweetness of cane sugar (sucrose), it can be used as a replacement when baking foods and making candy. Sugar alcohols are carbohydrates that have a chemical structure that partially resembles sugar and partially alcohol. Erythritol is found naturally in fruits and mushrooms. You can make erythritol through the process of fermentation.

Things You'll Need

• 2-liter plastic container
• 1 bottle corn syrup
• 1 tsp. moniliella pollinis yeast
• Ion exchange resin

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Instructions

• 1

  Pour one bottle of corn syrup into the 2-liter bottle. Using only one bottle of corn syrup preserves as much empty space as possible in the 2-liter bottle. The process of fermentation produces gas. The empty space in the bottle and the stretching properties of plastic will allow gas to be produced with reduced risk of bursting the container. You will have to open the cap to release the gas from time to time.

• 2

  Fill the empty corn syrup container with water and add it to the 2-liter bottle. Mix the water and syrup together to reduce the viscosity. This will allow the fermentation to occur more rapidly than it would have if left viscous.

• 3

  Add 1 tsp. moniliella pollinis yeast to the 2-liter bottle and mix together. The fermentation process will start instantly. The main ingredient in corn syrup is glucose. Glucose is produced by extracting starch from corn and adding enzymes to break down the chemical bonds to reorganize them into another form. The yeast consumes the glucose and produces erythritol gas as a byproduct. The gas will be produced rapidly early on in the process.You will have to babysit the 2-liter bottle for a while until you notice the rate of gas production is reduced. Allow the mixture to ferment for two weeks.

• 4

  Purify the contents of the 2-liter bottle by pouring it into a pot and heating it up to kill the yeast. Allow the water to boil away while leaving behind the crystallized form of erythritol. The crystals are still impure and unsuited for consumption.

• 5

  Wash the crystallized erythritol with cold water. Erythritol is hard to dissolve in cold water, allowing you to clean it with very minimum loss. This process helps remove yeast and impurities.

• 6

  Dissolve the crystallized erythritol with hot water and add an ion exchange resin (water softener). Let the dissolved erythritol and the resin sit for one day. The resin is designed to remove impurities by absorbing them into the pores of the resin beads.

• 7

  Remove the resin and boil away the water to crystallize the erythritol. Rinse the crystals in cold water to remove more impurities from the crystals.