Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, Incorporated

Dic Fine Chemicals, Inc.

Tadashi Katabami

Hideji Nishihashi

Masato Kitazume

Tadao Matsubayashi

Ken-ichi Matsuda

The present invention provides a sweetener which has mild sweetness like sugar while maintaining a high sweetness intensity of a Stevia sweetener and also has a sharp head-taste of sweetness, a sharp after-taste of sweetness, as well as reduction of the bitterness and astringency of after-taste peculiar to the Stevia sweetener, and a process for producing the same. The sweetener contains steviol glucosides comprising &#x3b2;-1,4-galactosyl rebaudioside A having one to three &#x3b2;-1,4-bonded galactosyl groups in a molecule and rebaudioside A, wherein the following expressions (1) and (2) are satisfied:[()/()]&#x2267;0.4&#x2003;&#x2003;(1)[()/()]&#x2267;1.0&#x2003;&#x2003;(2)wherein GRA represents the weight percentage of the &#x3b2;-1,4-galactosyl rebaudioside A having one to three &#x3b2;-1,4-bonded galactosyl groups in a molecule, RA represents the weight percentage of the rebaudioside A, and X represents the weight percentage of the steviol glucosides.

Sweetener and process for producing the same

A process for producing a stevioside derivative, which comprises reacting stevioside with a .beta.-1,3- or .beta.-1,4-glycosyl sugar compound in aqueous solution or aqueous suspension in the presence of a microorganism or enzyme having .beta.-1,3- or .beta.1,4-glycosyl transferring activity thereby to form .beta.-1,3- or .beta.-1,4-glycosyl stevioside.

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Urawa, Japan

Tadashi Katabami