Synergism among ternary mixtures of fourteen sweeteners

The purpose of the present study was to determine the degree of synergism o f sweet taste among ternary mixtures of 14 sweeteners. A trained panel eval uated ternary mixtures of 14 sweeteners varying in chemical structure and t ype. The ternary mixtures that were tested were limited to those in which t he compounds comprising the mixture were synergistic in binary combinations , according to an earlier study. All sweeteners in the ternary mixtures wer e isointense with 2% sucrose,according to a previously developed formulae. Each self-mixture was also tested (e.g. 2% sucrose + 2% sucrose + 2% sucros e). The triad with the highest mean sweetness intensity rating was alitame- neohesperidin dihydrochalcone-rebaudioside-A (10.8). This represents an inc rease of 99.4% when corn pared with the average of the self-mixtures. While this is greater than the maximum of 74% increase found for binary mixtures , more dyadic combinations of sweeteners tested previously exhibited synerg ism than ternary combinations tested here, However, most ternary mixtures w ere synergistic (significantly greater than the average of the three self-m ixtures) to some degree.