Application in the glucose industry
Glucose, or dextrose sugar, is found in
nature in sweet fruits such as grapes and in honey. It is
less sweet than sucrose (cane or beet sugar) and also less
soluble in water; however, when used in combination with sucrose,
the resulting sweetness is often greater than expected.
The commercial manufacture of glucose
sugars from starch began during the Napoleonic Wars with England,
when suppliers of sucrose sugar were cut off from France by
sea blockade. Rapid progress was made in its production in
the United States about the middle of the nineteenth century.
At present, glucose is usually produced
as a syrup or as a solid. The physical properties of the syrup
vary with the dextrose equivalent (DE) and the method of manufacture.
Dextrose equivalent is the total reducing sugars expressed
as dextrose and calculated as a percentage of the total dry
substance. Glucose is the common name for the syrup and dextrose
for the solid sugar. Dextrose, sometimes called grape sugar,
is the D-glucose produced by the complete hydrolysis of starch.
The starch used in the manufacture of
glucose syrup must be as pure as possible with low protein
content (particularly soluble protein). In this respect, cassava
starch can be preferable to other starches.
There is an increasing interest in manufacturing
glucose syrup directly from starchy roots or grains rather
than from the separated starch in order to save on capital
investments for the production and purification of starch
from such raw materials.
The starch conversion industry (glucose
and dextrose) is the largest single consumer of starch, utilizing
about 60 percent of total starch production. Glucose syrup
and crystalline dextrose compete with sucrose sugar and are
used in large quantities in fruit canning, confectioneries,
jams, jellies, preserves, ice cream, bakery products, pharmaceuticals,
beverages and alcoholic fermentation.
The functional purpose of glucose and
dextrose in the confectionery industry is to prevent crystallization
of the sucrose; in the bakery products industry it is to supply
fermentable carbohydrates; and in the ice-cream, fruit-preserves
and similar industries it is to increase the solids without
causing an undue increase in the total sweetness, thus emphasizing
the natural flavor of the fruit, and also to prevent the formation
of large ice crystals which mar the smooth texture.
In general, glucose and dextrose are used
in the food industry as a partial or complete substitute for
sucrose. The use of dextrose has increased in recent years
in the food-processing industries.
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