Trehalose and Isomaltulose in the Technology of Sweetened Condensed Milk

Sucrose is an important component in many foods. However, it can be dangerous for consumers’ health, if overconsumed. For instance, it may cause tooth decay. As a rule, sucrose provides sweetness and a certain dry matter content. Alternative sweeteners and bulking agents can also perform these two functions. Unfortunately, they almost always fail to serve as an osmotically active agent in canned products. The research objective was to study the properties of trehalose and isomaltulose as sugar substitutes in sweetened condensed milk. The study covered fifteen years of domestic and foreign research reported in the open databases of the Russian Scientific Citation Index, Scopus, and Web of Science. The list of search descriptors included twelve words and word combinations, e.g., sweetened condensed milk, water activity, sucrose, trehalose, isomaltulose, etc. The review focused primarily on the important properties of sucrose in the sweetened condensed milk and the physico-chemical features of the milk system. The analysis provided a system of criteria to evaluate the optimality of alternative substances for sweet concentrated milk production. These criteria were applied to trehalose and isomaltulose. The article introduces a list of criteria that can be used to evaluate sweeteners and sugar substitutes as regulators of certain technological properties in the production of sweetened concentrated milk products with intermediate moisture content. According to these criteria, trehalose and isomaltulose can serve as alternative sweeteners in condensed milk. However, the review revealed some gaps in experimental data on a number of properties of considered carbohydrates in sweetened concentrated milk products, which imposes further research.