What is the difference between saccharin and saccharic acid?
Saccharin is an artificial sweetening agent. It is about 550 times as sweet as cane sugar. It is excreted from the body in urine unchanged. It appears to be entirely inert and harmless when taken. Its use is of great value to diabetic people who need to control intake of calories.
On the other hand, saccharic acid, is a dibasic acid obtained by the bacterial oxidation of glucose in the mouth or by conc. $\mathrm{HNO}_3$ in the laboratory.
Name an artificial sweetener which is derivative of sucrose.
Sucralose is trichloro derivative of the sucrose. Its appearance and taste are like sugar. It is stable at cooking temperature. Sucralose contributes zero calories to the diet, compared with sucrose, which contributes 16 calories per teaspoon. Structure of sucralose is
Name two $\alpha$-amino acids which form a dipeptide which is 100 times more sweet than cane sugar ?
Aspartame is the most successful and widely used artificial sweetener. It is methyl ester of dipeptide formed from aspartic acid and phenylalanine. Its use is limited to cold foods and soft drinks because it is unstable at cooking temperature.
Structure of aspartame is
Aspartame is unstable at cooking temperature, where would you suggest aspartame to be used for sweetening?
Aspartame is used in cold foods and soft drinks. It is an artificial sweetening agent.
Sodium salts of some acids are very useful as food preservatives. Suggest a few such acids.
A preservative is naturally occuring or synthetically produced substance that is added to foods to prevent decomposition by microbial growth or by undesirable chemical changes. Sodium salts of same acids are very useful as food preservatives. Some examples of such acids are as follows
(i) Benzoic acid in the form of its sodium salt, constitutes one of the most common food preservative. Sodium benzoate is a common preservative in acid or acidified foods such as fruit, juices, pickles etc. Yeasts are inhibited by benzoate to a greater extent than are moulds and bacteria.
(ii) Sorbic acid and its salts (sodium, potassium and calcium) also have preservative activities but the applications of sodium sorbate $\mathrm{C}_6 \mathrm{H}_7 \mathrm{NaO}_2$ are limited compared to that for potassium salt.
(iii) Sodium erythorbate $\mathrm{C}_6 \mathrm{H}_7 \mathrm{NaO}_6$ is a food additive used predominate in meats, poultry and soft drinks.
(iv) Sodium propanoate $\mathrm{Na}\left(\mathrm{C}_2 \mathrm{H}_5 \mathrm{COO}\right)$ is used in bakery products as mold inhibitor.