Sucrose - As A Food

As A Food

Refined sugar was a luxury before the 18th century. It became widely popular in 18th century, then graduated to becoming a necessary food in the 19th century. This evolution of taste and demand for sugar as an essential food ingredient unleashed major economic and social changes. Eventually, table sugar became sufficiently cheap and common enough to influence standard cuisine and flavored drinks.

Sucrose forms a major element in confectionery and desserts. Cooks use it for sweetening — its fructose component, which has almost double the sweetness of glucose, makes sucrose distinctively sweet in comparison to other carbohydrate foods. It can also act as a food preservative when used in sufficient concentrations. Sucrose is important to the structure of many foods, including biscuits and cookies, cakes and pies, candy, and ice cream and sorbets. It is a common ingredient in many processed and so-called "junk foods."