Does Sugar Melt? No, it Decomposes

I have always believed that sugar, white or brown, melts. But according to a recent study, sugar does not melt. Rather, sugar decomposes, like wood and paper, which break down into simpler compounds, like carbon dioxide and oxygen, before they “melt.”

“This discovery is important to food scientists and candy lovers because it will give them yummier caramel flavors and more tantalizing textures. It even gives the pharmaceutical industry a way to improve excipients, the proverbial spoonful of sugar that helps your medicine go down,” said Shelly J. Schmidt, a University of Illinois professor of food chemistry.

In a presentation to the Institute of Food Technologists about the importance of the new discovery, Schmidt told the food scientists they could use the new findings to manipulate sugars and improve their products’ flavor and consistency.

“Certain flavor compounds give you a nice caramel flavor, whereas others give you a burnt or bitter taste. Food scientists will now be able to make more of the desirable flavors because they won’t have to heat to a ‘melting’ temperature but can instead hold sugar over a low temperature for a longer period of time,” she said.

Candy makers will be able to use a predictable time-temperature relationship, as the dairy industry does in milk pasteurization, to achieve better results, she said.

Journal Reference:
Joo Won Lee, Leonard C. Thomas, Shelly J. Schmidt. Can the Thermodynamic Melting Temperature of Sucrose, Glucose, and Fructose Be Measured Using Rapid-Scanning Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC)? Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2011; 59 (7): 3306 DOI: 10.1021/jf104852u
[via Science Daily]