Functional properties of sugar - on a technical level

We have gathered some of our deeper knowledge regarding the functional properties of sugar. Besides sweetening, sugar has many functional roles in food.

Without sugar, jam would soon go off, ice cream would crystallise, and bread would lose its freshness and dry out. In addition, the taste of foods would be disappointing without the ability of sugar to round off and enhance natural taste components. Sugar has one or more unique, quality enhancing properties to offer almost all types of food production involving both solid and liquid foods.

All these functional properties are not always well known and sometimes even forgotten, despite of the importance sugar actually do play in the different applications.

	Sweetness	Flavour and aroma	Volume	Texture	Shelf life	Fermentation	Freezing-point depression	Colour	Moisture retention
Beverages	Sweetness of beverages	Flavour and aroma of beverages		Texture of beverages	Shelf life of beverages			Colour of beverages
Preserves	Sweetness of preserves	Flavour and aroma of preserves		Texture of preserves	Shelf life of preserves
Jam and marmalade	Sweetness of jam and marmalade	Flavour and aroma of jam and marmalade	Volume of jam and marmalade	Texture of jam and marmalade	Shelf life of jam and marmalade			Colour of jam and marmalade
Sauces and dressings	Sweetness of sauces and dressings	Flavour and aroma of sauces and dressings		Texture of sauces and dressings	Shelf life of sauces and dressings
Confectionery	Sweetness of confectionery	Flavour and aroma of confectionery	Volume of confectionery	Texture of confectionery	Shelf life of confectionery			Colour of confectionery	Moisture retention in confectionery
Dairy products	Sweetness of dairy products	Flavour and aroma of dairy products	Volume of dairy products	Texture of dairy products			Freezing-point depression in dairy products
Bakery products	Sweetness of bakery products	Flavour and aroma of bakery products	Volume of bakery products	Texture of bakery products		Fermentation of bakery products		Colour of bakery products	Moisture retention in bakery products
Pharmaceuticals and non-food products	Sweetness of pharmaceuticals and non-food products	Flavour and aroma of pharmaceuticals and non-food products	Volume of pharmaceuticals and non-food products	Texture of pharmaceuticals and non-food products		Fermentation of pharmaceuticals and non-food products