D-tagatose is also known as D-marigold sugar. Natural tagatose is mainly found in dairy products such as yogurt and milk powder. It is the raw material for the synthesis of L-tagatose.
D-tagatose is an isomer of D-fructose in which five carbon molecules and one oxygen molecule form a ring structure. It is a natural six-carbon ketose that exists in nature but is relatively rare, and is the ketose form of galactose. Its sweetness is similar to that of sucrose, and its calories are only one-third of that of sucrose.
Is Tagatose Safe?
D-tagatose is non-toxic and carcinogenic, and can be safely used in the food industry.
As a natural sweetener, tagatose has the advantages of good safety, good taste, less aftertaste, high stability, and easy solubility in water. Tagatose has also been proven to have anti-aging and metabolism-boosting effects. In food, tagatose can reduce the use of sucrose, and can also make people feel sweet and pleasant.
What Is Tagatose Used For?
D-tagatose has huge economic value and use value in food fields such as health drinks, dairy products, cereal products, candies, and low-sugar preserved foods.
In the beverage industry, D-tagatose can be compounded with high-intensity sweeteners such as cyclamate, aspartame, acesulfame K, and stevioside to achieve a synergistic effect and eliminate the effects of these high-intensity sweeteners. Harmful effect. It improves the mouthfeel of beverages by removing undesirable aftertastes such as metallic, afterbitter and astringent.
Adding a small amount of tagatose can significantly improve the taste of dairy products. Therefore, tagatose can be added to sterilized milk powder, cheese, yogurt and other dairy products.
Tagatose can be used as a sweetener in chocolate without much modification to the process. The viscosity and endothermic properties of chocolate produced with added tagatose are similar to chocolate with added sucrose. Moreover, the anti-caries function of tagatose has great potential in the fields of chewing gum and children's candies.
Tagatose caramelizes easily at low temperatures, producing the desired color and richer flavor more easily than sucrose, making it useful in baked goods.