Potential of Using Sugar-Rich Fruits as Natural Sweetening Food Ingredients

The clean label concept is undergoing continuous development, driven by increasing consumer demand for transparency regarding food ingredients. Incorporating fruit pulps into processed foods offers a promising strategy for natural sweetening, promoting healthier formulations while aligning with consumer preferences for recognizable, minimally processed ingredients.

To promote the valorization of Portuguese regional varieties of apples and pears—both for their organoleptic quality and their potential use as natural food additives—this study analyzed four apple cultivars, 'Pêro de Borbela', 'Pardo Lindo', 'Repinau', and 'Pêro Coimbra', and six pear cultivars, 'Noiva' and 'Bela-Feia', 'Torres Novas', 'Carapinheira', 'Carapinheira Roxa', 'Lambe-os-Dedos', and 'Amorim'. Total soluble solids (TSS) content was determined by refractometry, and sugar profiles were characterized using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).

‘Pardo Lindo’ apple exhibited a higher TSS content, at about 17 ºBrix, indicating superior quality compared to the other samples. Among the pear cultivars, ‘Carapinheira Roxa’ was the sweetest, with a value of 17 ºBrix, although all pear samples demonstrated a notably high sweetness, with values exceeding 14 ºBrix.

In apples, sugar composition followed a consistent pattern: fructose > sucrose > glucose > sorbitol. Similarly, fructose was the dominant sugar in all pear cultivars, with levels exceeding 250 mg/ g DW and reaching up to 450 mg/ g DW.

Given its high sweetening power, the predominance of fructose in these varieties highlights their potential as natural ingredients for use as alternatives to refined sugars in food formulations.