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Isomalt Sugar
Isomalt is an excellent tasting sugar-free sweetener. Products made with isomalt have the same texture and appearance as those made with sugar. Derived from sugar, isomalt’s health benefits and stability make it a versatile and valuable ingredient for numerous reduced-calorie foods and pharmaceuticals.
How Isomalt is Made
The two-step process begins with sucrose. First, an enzyme rearranges the linkage between glucose and fructose in sucrose. In the second step, two hydrogens are added to an oxygen in the fructose portion of the disaccharide. Approximately half of the fructose portion of the original disaccharide is converted to mannitol and about half of the fructose portion of the original disaccharide is converted to sorbitol. Therefore, isomalt contains two different disaccharide alcohols: gluco-mannitol and gluco-sorbitol.
The molecular changes that occur in these steps make isomalt more stable – chemically and enzymatically – than sucrose. Isomalt’s stability is the reason for many of its health benefits and the large variety of products which it can improve.