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Student Research Paper

Inulin and Erythritol As Sucrose Replacers in Short-dough Cookies: Sensory, Fracture, and
Acoustic Properties

Original research conducted by Laura Laguna, Cristina Primo-Martin, Ana Salvador, and Teresa
Sanz and provided in the Journal of Food Science November 2013

Bonnie Green
NFS 2260: Introduction to Food Science
April 13, 2014


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Table sugar (also known as sucrose), about 70% of which is acquired from sugar cane
worldwide, has been used since about 1000 BC for everything from medicine to cooking (4).
Nowadays, contrarily, sucrose causes people all sorts of health issues. Having 4 kilocalories per
gram, sucrose can cause problems with people diagnosed with obesity, Type II diabetes, or
dental cavities (1). People struggling with their weight often look for the sweet treats that they
crave at the supermarket, but a lower-calorie version with less guilt. Diabetics need to be careful
not to eat something concentrated in carbohydrates that will cause their blood sugar to spike out
of control (5). Therefore, it is important to have a snack on the market that is lower in sucrose
and calories, but is still flavorful and retains other pleasing cookie attributes, such as color,
smell, surface features, texture, and hardness.
Two compounds used in this study to replace sucrose in short-dough cookies will be
inulin and erythritol. Inulin is a carbohydrate extracted from chicory or Jerusalem artichoke, and
accomplishes the requirements for being considered dietary fiber. Humans can neither digest nor
absorb inulin, so it contains no calories, it is fairly water soluble, and it can form a small,
spreadable gel network (3). To date, there have been no studies using inulin as a sucrose replacer
in cookies (1). Erythritol is a 4-carbon sugar alcohol with a mild sweetness. It looks similar to
sucrose, and has been used to replace sucrose in baked goods, such as chiffon cake or Danish
cookies. It increases cookie lightness and gets satisfactory hedonic scores up to 50% substituted
sucrose (1). It is noncariogenic, nonglycemic, and contains few to no calories; therefore, it is safe
for diabetics. Erythritol does not give humans a laxative effect, and it also has antioxidant
properties. It is found abundantly in nature in fermented food, fruits, seaweed, and mushrooms
(2).
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In the study, sucrose was replaced with 25% and 50% inulin, as well as 25% and 50%
erythritol, resulting in four batches of short-dough cookies, with an additional batch of 100%
sucrose as the control (named 25SI, 50SI, 25SE, 50SE, and control, respectively). Other
ingredients were flour, shortening, sucrose, milk powder, salt, sodium bicarbonate, ammonium
hydrogen carbonate, and water. The sucrose or inulin/sucrose or erythritol/sucrose combinations
were mixed with the reconstituted milk powder, baking soda, baking powder, and shortening in
an electric mixer. After the flour was added, the dough rested for 10 minutes. The dough was
then rolled out 10 mm thick and cut into rectangles 50 mm long and 30 mm wide, placed on a
perforated tray, and placed in a conventional oven for 4 minutes at 175 C. For even browning,
the trays were then rotated 180 and baked for another 4.5 minutes. After cooling, the cookies
were stored in polypropylene bags for evaluation the following day. The process was the same
for each sucrose/replacer mixture (1).
In order to determine descriptive attributes appropriate for the consumer test, 9 trained
analysts from ages 25-45 were brought in to sample cookies and suggested adjectives they
thought best fit the cookies. The final attributes agreed upon were yellowness or toast color
intensity, buttery or toast odor, porosity and convexity of the surface, hardness and sound
intensity when broken, and matrix aeration after being broken in half. Flavor was to be defined
as buttery, sweet, or toasty. In-mouth texture characteristics included hardness and sound at
breaking on first bite, quality of the sound, hardness during chewing, sound length during
chewing, and moisture mouth feel (1).
The cookie samples were evaluated once more before the consumer test, their sensory
attributes being scored. The 50SI cookie was determined to not be included in the consumer
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testing because they were considered sensory intolerable due to the extreme hardness on the first
bite with front teeth (1).
100 untrained consumers, ages 18-65, who claimed to regularly buy short-dough cookies
took part in this study. They received four cookie samples (one each of 25SI, 25SE, 50SE, and
control), which were coded with a random 3-digit number. They scored their liking of the
cookies with a 9-point hedonic scale; if they scored the cookie with a 1, they extremely disliked
it, and a score of 9 meant they extremely liked the cookie. The consumers were also scored for
their overall acceptance, appearance, color, odor, texture, hardness, crispness, dry mouth feel,
taste, sweetness, and butter taste of each cookie (1).
The amount of moisture in the cookies was calculated by placing the cookies in an oven
at 105 C so their weight would be consistent. Water activity was verified by measuring the
humidity of the air and its equilibrium with the surface of the cookies (1).
The acoustics of the cookies were an important part of this study. The cookies were
placed in an isolated acoustic chamber with two different microphones. Cookies were placed on
a flat surface over a slot and were then crushed with a wedge, meaning to simulate biting with
the front teeth (1).
The trained analyst panel of 9 people evaluated the consumer test scores for the 4
different cookie samples. Of all the observed attributes, 10 were statistically different. They were
toast color intensity, surface porosity, manual hardness, matrix aeration, buttery or sweet flavor,
hardness upon first bite, force of sound in mouth upon first bite, sound length during chewing,
and moisture mouth feel. The cookie with the darkest toast color was the 50SE, then the control
cookies, though there wasnt a significant distinction (1).
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Usually, short-dough recipes do not call for enough water to dissolve all the sucrose;
therefore, sucrose-crystal size after baking is an important factor in short-dough cookie
manufacturing. In the study, crystallized sugar was found on the surface of the cookies. This
causes holes in the cookies, called porosity. The cookies with the highest amount of porosity
were the 50SE; the more sucrose that was replaced, the higher the porosity. This is due to the fact
that erythritol is not water soluble, so it remained in solid crystals on the cookies surface. The
erythritol cookies were also less flat than the inulin or control cookies (1).
As far as hardness goes, the control and 25SI cookies were the hardest cookies, followed
by 50SE and 25SE. Matrix aeration in the cookies (or how much air gets trapped within the
cookie matrix) was an interesting factor to observe. The erythritol cookies were unable to trap air
in the dough as well as the control and inulin cookies (1).
The sweet and butter flavors (very important factors for consumer acceptance) were
significantly unalike among the different cookies. The control, naturally, had the highest sweet
and butter flavor scores (1). Erythritol is 60-80% as sweet as sucrose (2), and inulin is even less
sweet, about 10% as sweet as sucrose (1). All the batches had the same amount of fat, so the
sucrose apparently increased the buttery flavor. After the control batch, the best flavored cookies
were followed by 25SE and 25SI, with 50SE tasting the least buttery (1).
Hardness upon first bite was related to hardness when broken by hand, but the two had
different results; it seemed to be harder to bite the cookie than it did to break it by hand. The
control cookie was the hardest, and all the sucrose-replaced cookies were softer. The crust of the
cookies was also harder when more sucrose was in the recipe. Moisture mouth feel was higher
with the sucrose-replaced cookies than with the control, most likely due to the fact that they were
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less hard. Similarly, the sound upon first bite and sound length while chewing was intense for the
control and inulin cookies, but the erythritol cookies did not score as high in this category (1).
Consumer acceptance is vital for a given product to be successful. Consumers accepted
the 25SI cookie almost as much as the control. The least liked cookie was the 50SE (1).
Replacing sucrose in a baked good affects not only the flavor, but the molecular structure
as well. These changes affect the color and porosity of the surface, hardness, matrix aeration,
sweet and buttery flavors, how loud the cookie is when bitten and chewed, and moisture mouth
feel. The 25SI cookies were closest in all of these categories to the control cookies. Consumers
least accepted the 50 SE cookie, which differed from the control or 25SI cookies in every way,
except for its hardness and dry mouth feel. Compared to the control batch, the 25SI cookies were
softer and more delicate; the cookies containing erythritol were harder to chew (1). A study at
Hungkuang University found similar results, along with erythritol causing waxy and dry textures
in Danish cookies (2). Therefore, erythritol is not the ideal sucrose replacer. Inulin, however,
could replace sucrose up to 25% and gain much consumer acceptance.
Further studies still must be conducted in order to test inulin in other reduced-sucrose or
reduced-fat products; a study by Zahn, Pepke, and Rohm experimented with using inulin as a fat
replacer in muffins, due to its ability to form a gel network when hydrated. They discovered that
inulin cannot entirely replace fat (just like it cannot entirely replace sucrose) due to the
unacceptable characteristics of the final baked good (3). However, if food scientists can perfect
the inulin/sucrose/fat ratio, while still maintaining an acceptable number of kilocalories per
serving, many delicious baked goods (and perhaps even candies) will be available on the market
for people concerned with their weight, diabetes, or dental carries.

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References
1. Laguna L, Primo-Martin C, Salvador A, Sanz T. Inulin and Erythritol As Sucrose
Replacers in Short-dough Cookies: Sensory, Fracture, and Acoustic Properties. Journal
of Food Science. November 5, 2013; 78: S777-S784.
2. Lin S-D, Lee C-C, Mau J-L, Lin L, Chiou S-Y. Effect of Erythritol On Quality
Characteristics of Reduced-Calorie Danish Cookies. Journal of Food Quality. 2010; 33:
14-26.
3. Zahn S, Pepke F, Rohm H. Effect of inulin as a fat replacer on texture and sensory
properties of muffins. International Journal of Food Science & Technology. 2010; 45:
2530-2537.
4. Nesbitt M, Johnson N. Saccharum officinarum (sugar cane). Kew Royal Botanic Gardens
website. 2010. Available at: http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/plants-
fungi/saccharum-officinarum-sugar-cane. Accessed April 1, 2014.
5. Sugar and Desserts. American Diabetes Association website. 2014. Available at:
http://www.diabetes.org/food-and-fitness/food/what-can-i-eat/understanding-
carbohydrates/sugar-and-desserts.html. Accessed April 13, 2014.