Neotame is composed of two amino acids L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine, similar to aspartame and an additional 3, 3-dimethylbutyl group.
It is 7,000–13,000 times as sweet as sugar and 30–60 times as sweet as aspartame. It provides zero calories and has a clean, sweet, sugar-like taste with no undesirable taste characteristics. Since neotame and aspartame are considered as intense sweeteners, a very low level is needed to sweeten the food products.
It is functional in a wide array of beverages and foods and can be used alone or blended with other high-intensity or carbohydrate sweeteners.
A t-butyl group is added to the free amine group of aspartic acid. This could be a super sweet deal for food and beverage manufacturers, all the sweetness of sugar without a metallic after-taste plus at a fraction of the amount of sweetener needed compared to other sugar substitutes. The neotame was approved in 2002 as a general purpose sweetener, excluding in meat and poultry by FDA.
In the European Union Neotame is licensed as food additive E 961 since January 2010, in Australia as early as 2001.
Neotame – derivative of aspartame
