Description of Sucralose

Sucralose is a zero-calorie artificial sweetener that is about 600 times sweeter than sugar. Tiny amounts of sucralose give sweetness to the sugar substitute, Splenda. The chemical process to derive sucralose from sugar was discovered in 1976.

Features

• Sucralose is sweeter than other sugar substitutes, twice as sweet as saccharin and more than three times sweeter than aspartame. It has a longer shelf life than aspartame. It is stable at higher temperatures and can be used in baking

History

• Development of sucralose as a sweetening product was pursued from 1980 by Tate & Lyle and McNeil Speciality Products, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.

  Splenda, the sugar substitute containing sucralose, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1998 and grew to 60 percent of the retail artificial sweetener market by 2009.

Function

• Sucralose is popular with diabetics and dieters due to its zero calories, sweet taste, shelf stability and the fact that it can be heated and used in cooking and baking.

Effects

• Sucralose does not stay in the body, but is excreted unchanged through the kidneys.

  Sucralose does not cause tooth decay.

Considerations

• Sucralose is an alternate name coined by the makers of Splenda for the chemical known as trichlorosucrose. The "tri-chloro" refers to the three chlorine atoms that replace three oxygen-hydrogen groups to turn a sugar or sucrose molecule into a sucralose molecule.

  Some natural food advocates express concern about possible nerve damage from the chlorine in sucralose, but no scientifically proven ill effects have been documented.