Evaluation of the water-holding capacity of sweeteners

Water-retaining capacity is an essential property for the chemical components of food products, as it refers to one of the characteristics that determine the commercial properties of products. At the same time, there are practically no data on the hydrophilicity of sweeteners in the literature; a specific criterion for assessing this property is not given. Hydrophilicity is typically defined as a techno-functional property, i.e. it is assessed for a certain food product as a whole, when replacing the classic sweetener with another, for example, cheaper. From the literature, the isopiestic method was used to assess the hydrophilicity of isomalt in comparison with sucrose. The article is devoted to choosing a parameter that can become a universal criterion for assessing the water-retaining capacity of sweeteners. The hydrophilicity of erythritol, cyclomate, glucose, sucrose, and sorbitol has been studied by isopiestic method. The gravimetrically determined area S under the isopiestic curve was used as an analytical signal to assess the hydrophilicity of sweeteners. The correlations of S with various criteria, such as the Davis and Griffin criterions, the simplified criterion for hydrophobicity, the integral Gibbs energy, and the solubility of substances in water, for assessing the hydrophilicity (hydrophobicity) of sweeteners are considered. A correlation of the area under the isopiestic curves S only with the integral Gibbs energy from all the considered criteria was shown. The data obtained allow us to recommend the integral Gibbs energy for assessing the hydrophilicity and, consequently, the water-retaining capacity of sweeteners.