During the past decade the market trends have changed considerably challenging the dominance of sucrose as a major carbohydrate sweetener. A wide range of new and more desirable carbohydrate-based sweeteners have emerged on the scene to keep pace with the advances in food technology. These sweeteners have tremendous applications in the food and pharmaceutical industries. The most important among them is invert sugar, an equimolecular mixture of glucose and fructose. Invert sugar is a valuable sweetener in food and pharmaceutical application because of its functionally more desirable properties. The use of invert sugar in India is limited mainly because of the lack of awareness about its usefulness and its poor availability.
The industry wise uses of invert sugar are:
i. Bakeries & biscuits -- It can be used for carmellisation, enhancement of flavour and texture improvement.
ii. Bread, cakes & pastries -- Invert sugar improves the quality of the crust and makes the bread crumb softer. Yeast activationalso becomes faster.
iii. Fruit processing -- When used for fruit processing, invert sugar increases the shelf life due to good humectant properties. It also enhances taste and flavour.
iv. Honey -- Invert sugar can be used for bee feeding and can be blended with honey. Chemically and physically it has the same properties as honey.
v. Herbal cosmetics -- As invert sugar restricts bacterial activity and is a chemically purer replacement of honey, it can be used in herbal cosmetics.
vi. Squashes, lemonade and instant energy drinks -- Because of the glucose and fructose content, invert sugar provides instant energy and better taste.
vii. Pharmaceuticals -- Invert sugar is an ideal ingredient for cough syrup and glucose and fructose based intravenous fluids.
The process for the enzymatic production of concentrated invert sugar using immobilised technique, has been developed by the Food Technology and Enzyme Engineering Division of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre . This process ensures safety for humanconsumption of invert sugar.
The conventional method of manufacturing invert sugar involves acid hydrolysis of sucrose, the popular and cheapest sweetener in India. However, such acid hydrolysis has a low conversion efficiency, high energy consumption and thus high cost of production.
The acid-hydrolysed product also contains impurities introduced by uncontrollable parameters during inversion. The said conversion can also be achieved by enzymatic action of inverts on sucrose with a conversion efficiency of almost 100 per cent without the inherent disadvantages of acid hydrolysis.
Process outline
The entire process of making invert sugar can be classified into two main groups.
a. Preparation of a proprietary biotech biocatalyst matrix.
b. Inversion of concentrated sucrose solution by passing through the biocatalyst matrix.
The inversion is carried out in a single step. The substrate sucrose is passed through the bottom of a specially designed, jacketed bioreactor containing theenzyme.
Plant and machinery (5mt/day)
The major equipment required for the production of invert sugar are as follows:
Bead making machine; Bioreactors; Boiler
Auxiliary equipment : Pumps; Press-filter; Mixing & storage tanks;
Instruments
Raw material and utility requirement : Sugar 2800 kg; Water 2200 kg;
Electricity 100 kwh
Land and building : Total area -- 60 x 40 m; Covered area -- 700 sqm.
Salient features
The process of inversion is very simple. It requires minimum space, energy and is simple in operation. Some of the unique advantages of the process are: (a) Completely indigenous technology; (b) Virtually maintenance free operation; (c) No special process control; (d) Does not create any problem of pollution of effluents; (e) Absolutely free from hazards.
The National Research Development Corporation (NRDC) has signed an agreement with Naraingarh Sugar Mills Ltd for licensing the technology for the manufacture of invert sugar. For further detailscontact : National Research Development Corporation (NRDC),`Anusandhan Vikas', 20-22, Zamroodpur Community Centre, Kailash Colony Extension, New Delhi-110048. Phone: 6417942, 6434265, Fax: 011-6460506; E-mail: nrdc@x400.nicgw.nic.in.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
