Advantame – an amino acid based sweetener for off-taste masking and flavour enhancement

New Multifunctional Sweetener from Ajinomoto

Ajinomoto has a rich history in the food world and established their name with products like mono-sodium glutamate, amino acids, sweeteners, savory ingredients, specialty ingredients etc. In this article we would like to bring the sweetener Advantame to attention.

Nowadays everybody is aware of the increased concern about obesity rates and added sugar levels. Consumers continue to demand reduced sugar solutions in food products but are not prepared to sacrifice taste.

After many years of research and development Ajinomoto developed the next generation sweetener called Advantame derived from amino acids. The sweetness quality of Advantame is as clean as Ajinomoto’s AminoSweet®, and the sweetness intensity is about 30,000 times higher than sugar. Advantame does not have any unpleasant taste or metallic taste, and has a long-lasting sweetness.

Advantame can be used for:

• reducing calories
• quality improvement with its off-taste masking effect
• quality improvement with its flavour enhancement effect
• cost reduction

Sugar substitution

Advantame can substitute other sweeteners up to 40% and reduce the amount of calories in the product. The substitution ratio can be increased by blending with other ingredients.

Off-taste masking

Advantame can also be used to mask lingering off-taste. Proven concepts show that Advantame can mask many kinds of functional ingredients such as stevia (lingering/licorice off-taste), vitamins, minerals, polyphenols and amino acids etc. As an example, when you apply 40ppm of Advantame the bitterness level can be masked with more than 50%.

Flavour enhancement

Thanks to its compilation Advantame enhances many flavours in food, for example:

• Fruit flavours (orange, apple, strawberry, grape, peach etc)
• Mint, chocolate and cocoa flavours
• Spiciness and saltiness (in seasonings and processed foods)

Approval status Advantame