Melting Temperature of Alternative Sugars and Sweeteners

Abstract

In cooking, sugar is used to provide a sweet flavour for many dishes. Sugar melts during the cooking process and many alternative sugars and sweeteners are now of public interest. An investigation on the melting temperatures of coconut sugar, erythritol sweetener and xylitol sweetener was conducted. The study objective was to discover the melting points of these alternative sugars and sweeteners by using sugar calibration data as a standard. This data provided insight on the melting temperature, a physical property, of the alternative sugars and sweeteners. Oven calibration of sugar resulted in a calculated temperature difference, which allowed melting temperatures of the other sugars to be found. Data was compiled and assessed with statistical analysis, and there was no variance within each treatment group. Overall, using sugar to calibrate the temperature of the oven permitted average melting temperature determination of the three treatments. Further directions for this study would involve temperature accuracy and verification.