Trehalose can bring out the best in your products and your processes, enhancing functionality and improving stability in several key ways. Trehalose has been shown to provide superior stabilization of proteins and biological systems, protecting against damage caused by desiccation or freezing.

Process stability

Owing to its unique chemical structure, trehalose remains stable under low pH conditions, even at elevated temperatures. Unlike otherdisaccharides it will not readily hydrolyze to its component parts and subsequently it will not take part in Maillard reactions with amino acids and proteins. The high stability of trehalose enables the original product characteristics (flavor and color) to be retained even after heat processing and prolonged storage.

Mild sweetness

With its mild sweetness, trehalose allows the flavor and true enjoyment of your products to come to the forefront. Trehalose is only 45 percent as sweet as sucrose, delivering balanced taste without masking other flavors in your formulations. It is a clean taste profile with no aftertaste and a sweetness profi le that is characterized by a rapid onset of sweetness with comparable persistence to sucrose. Trehalose can be used in food and beverage products in combination with sucrose and other bulk sweeteners to optimize sweetness thus allowing the full flavor of the product to be appreciated.

Solubility

Trehalose is readily soluble in water. It is characterized by lower solubility at low temperatures but higher solubility than sucrose at high temperatures.

Low hygroscopicity

Crystalline trehalose is stable and remains free-flowing up to 94% relative humidity. It can reduce product caking when blended with other sugars and food ingredients. Food products or components coated with trehalose have enhanced stability, benefiting from the low hygroscopicity of the coating.

High glass transition temperature

Trehalose has a high glass transition temperature compared with other disaccharides. This property, combined with its high process stability and low hygroscopicity, makes trehalose ideal as a protein protectant and ideally suited as a carrier for spray-dried flavors.

Depression of freezing point

Trehalose will depress the freezing point of a product to the same extent as sucrose. It can therefore be used in frozen foods including ice-cream to modify texture whilst providing only mild sweetness.

Reduction of water activity

Trehalose reduces water activity to the same extent as sucrose. It can therefore be used in combination with sucrose to optimize sweetness while maintaining product shelf life.