In response to an increasing demand from consumers for healthier and calorie controlled foods, Cerestar has developed a new food ingredient, erythritol. Erythritol can be produced from starch by a full biotechnological process, combining enzymatic and fermentative conversions. The use of an osmophilic yeast allows the fermentation step to be performed at high dry substance, giving an economic advantage. An extremely pure end product is then easily obtained by final crystallisation. Erythritol is structurally a polyol and shares the health properties of other polyols such as being toothfriendly and safe for diabetics. However, it offers in addition two very important nutritional advantages: a lower calorific value (0.3 Kcal/g) and a good tolerance. This is due to its low molecular weight, which allows erythritol to be rapidly absorbed from the small intestine, with subsequent excretion in the urine. Fermentation in the colon is therefore excluded and any resulting gastro‐intestinal discomfort avoided. The combination of these properties makes erythritol a unique low calorie bulk sweetener. From a functionality point of view, erythritol is a moderately sweet bulking agent with a cooling taste: workability is similar to other polyols. It has a taste profile close to that of sucrose and may therefore improve the taste quality of a blend with intense sweeteners. Its low solubility and ease of crystallisation, make erythritol very suitable for applications which require a crystalline sweetener, such as chocolate. Other potential application areas are bakery, table‐top and confectionery. Presently erythritol is under evaluation to establish beyond any doubt its safety and to obtain food approval as a new, low calorie, bulk sweetener. Potential non‐food applications of erythritol are in polymers, fine chemicals and pharmaceutical intermediates.

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It is common knowledge that the presence of so called .'grits" and other structures in process streams of the corn wet milling process leads to starch yield losses by incomplete starch/gluten separation. The nature of these problematic structures was investigated by isolating them from the process streams and analysing their morphology by means of epifluorescence microscopy using specific dyes. Additional evidence was obtained by specific enzymatic degradation and subsequent microscopic observation. Using the same technique on thin cross sections from whole corn kernels, the location and source of these structures could be identified. Grits are dense particles from the horny endosperm, consisting of a three dimensional honeycomblike protein matrix filled with small starch granules. Many grits show the regular cell shape found in endosperm cells and are still enclosed by the fibrous cell wall. In other process streams, aggregates of protein lumps with trapped large and small starch granules occur frequently. A small fraction of fibrous material was also found to be enclosed in the protein matrix. These "sticky" aggregates often occur along with a large percentage of extremely small starch granules or fragments. Occasionally, very small "grits"-like particles were present. Based on these findings, explanations can be found for the loss of starch and for the difficulties in the starch-gluten separation stage in the industrial corn wet milling process Vorkommen von Starke/Protein-Aggregaten im Endosperm von Mais. Es ist allgemein bekannt, daR die Anwesenheit sogenannter .,Grits" und anderer Strukturen in ProzeBstromen des Mais-NaBmahlprozesses zu Ausbeuteverlusten an Starke fuhren und die Trennung in Protein und Starke erschweren. Die problematischen Strukturen wurden aus ProzeBstromen isoliert und ihre Beschaffenheit durch Analyse ihrer Morphologie mit Hilfe der Epifluoreszenz-Mikroskopie unter Verwendung spezifisch anfarbender Farbstoffe untersucht. Zusatzliche Beweise wurden durch spezifischen enzymatischen Abbau und nachfolgender mikroskopischer Beobachtung erhalten. Mit der gleichen Technik an Diinnschnitten von ganzen Maiskornern wurde der Ursprung dieser Strukturen lokalisiert. Grits sind dichte Partikel vom hornigen Endosperm, die aus einer dreidimensionalen bienenwabenahnlichen Proteinmatrix bestehen, welche mit kleinen Starkekornern besetzt ist. Viele Grits haben die gleich-maBige Zellform wie Endospem-Zellen und sind noch von faseriger Zellwand umhullt. In anderen ProzeRstromen treten haufig Aggregate von Protein-Klumpen mit eingeschlossenen groRen und kleinen Starkekornern auf. Ein geringer Anteil von eingeschlossenem faserigem Material wurde ebenfalls nachgewiesen. Diese ,,klebenden" Aggregate treten haufig gemeinsam mit einem hohen Prozentsatz extrem kleiner Starkekorner oder ihrer Fragmente auf. Gelegentlich waren sehr kleine ,.grits"artige Teilchen anwesend. Aufgrund dieser Befunde konnen Erklarungen fur die Starkeverluste und die Schwierigkeiten bei der Starke-Protein Trennstufe im industriellen Mais...