The use of artificial sweeteners in place of sugar for the reduction of caloric intake, for medical reasons and for dietary reasons, is well known. The most common artificial sweeteners are the saccharines and the cyclamates.
Both of these groups of artificial sweeteners are much sweeter than sugar and have no caloric value. However, both groups of substances suffer from the disadvantage of leaving bitter aftertaste in the mouth of the user, and prior to the ban on cyclamates, saccharine and cyclamate have been used together in order to lower the degree of bitter aftertaste of the sweeteners. Since the ban on the cyclamates, and due to the fact that the saccharines have a relatively high degree of bitter aftertaste, it has become much more difficult to provide artificial sweetener compositions without any bitter aftertaste.
I have previously described a composition of saccharine, lactose and cream of tartar for achieving satisfactory sweetening using saccharine alone as the artificial sweetener, without bitter aftertaste. However, such a product contains calories because of the presence of lactose and in fact a sweetening composition which is the equivalent in sweetness to 2 teaspoons of sugar contains about 3 calories. While this is of course extremely low as far as caloric content is concerned, 3 calories are undesirable, particularly in the case of diabetics who might use large amounts of sweeteners and who would not wish to upset their carbohydrate intake in any way. In addition, lactose is also known as milk sugar, and therefore persons of orthodox Jewish faith cannot use this composition in conjunction with meat products.
In addition I have previously described a composition of saccharine, glucono delta lactone, sodium gluconate and/or potassium gluconate and cream of tartar (potassium bipartrate). This composition avoids the bitter aftertaste of the saccharine, is completely calorie free and also can be used with dairy or meat products by persons of the orthodox Jewish faith.
However, it has been found that the composition can cause milk, for example in coffee to curdle, and also that the use thereof gives rise to a slight sour aftertaste.
Generally speaking, in accordance with the present invention, a composition is provided of saccharine, glucono delta lactone and an edible bicarbonate. This composition not only avoids the bitter aftertaste of the saccharine in a calorie-free product, but it is also free of sourness and does not cause milk to curdle.