Abstract:Sugar alcohol has become an ideal sugar substitute sweetener with a promising future because of its pure sweetness, low calories, and advantages of safety and health. However, the research on influencing factors of the sensory properties of sugar alcohol sweeteners was quite limited. In this paper, erythritol, xylitol, maltitol and sorbitol were studied based on the sensory analysis methods such as paired comparison and sorting method. The effects of different particle size, temperatures and solution mass concentrations on the sweetness, coolness, bitterness and off-flavor of sugar alcohols were investigated. The results showed that at room temperature, the coolness of sugar alcohol crystals with different particle sizes showed significant differences (P<0.05), and the sweetness of maltitol and sorbitol also showed significant differences (P<0.01). For both of the two properties, sugar alcohol crystals with larger particle size showed lower intensity. Heat treatment made the off-flavor and bitter taste more easily distinguished among samples with different particles, and weakened the perception of cool and refreshing. Erythritol with high mass concentration showed significant sweetness enhancement in hot drinks. For xylitol, maltitol or sorbitol, the sweetness in cold or hot drinks was similar at different solution mass concentrations.
