Fructose

Fructose
Of the other natural sugars used by humans, fructose, a monosaccharide is the sweetest and it is the most water soluble of the sugars. It is hygroscopic, making it an excellent humectant when used in baked goods.

The value of humectant in baked food is that it retards their hydration. Solutions of fructose have a low viscosity that results in lower “body” feel than sucrose but in greater flexibility of use over a wide range of temperature. Because of its greater solubility and more effective sweetness than sucrose, fructose is a better alternative to sucrose when very sweet solution are required, as fructose will not crystallize out of solution, whereas sucrose will.

Fructose has sometimes been called the fruit sugar since it occurs in many fruits and berries. It also occurs as a major component in honey, corn syrup, cane sugar, and beet sugar. In fact, sucrose, a disaccharide, is composed of glucose and fructose. Of these two components the glucose moiety cannot be metabolized by diabetics, and it is for this reason that the ingestion of sucrose cannot be tolerated by diabetics.

Fructose, on the other hand, does not require insulin for its metabolism and can, therefore, be used by diabetics with no concern. Its use also appears to reduce the incidence of dental carries. When used with saccharin, it tends to mask the bitter aftertaste of saccharin. As it apparently accelerates the metabolism of alcohol, it has been recommended as a rapid source of energy for athletes and, in combination with gluconate and saccharin, as an economic, effective, safe, low calorie sweetener for beverage.
Fructose

Flavor enhancers

Flavor enhancers
Flavorings either impart a particular flavor to foods or modify flavors already present. Flavor enhancers intensify flavor already present, especially when desirable flavors are relatively weak.

Monosodium glutamate is one of the beat known and most widely used flavor enhancers. This compound occurs naturally in many foods and in certain seaweed that was used for centuries as a flavor enhancer for soups and other foods. It is only within the last hundred years that the reason for the effectiveness of the seaweed was discovered to be MSG (Monosodium glutamate). The way in which MSG enhances flavor is mot fully understood.

While it is effective at relatively low levels (parts per thousand), there are other compounds called flavor potentiators that also enhance flavors but are extremely powerful, effective in parts per million and even per billion. These compounds have been identified as nucleotides and their effect is attributed to their synergistic properties (properties that intensify the effect of natural flavor components).
Flavor enhancers