Category: sweetener
Aliases: E968, meso-Erythritol, (2R,3S)-Butane-1,2,3,4-tetraol, Butane-1,2,3,4-tetraol, 1,2,3,4-Butanetetrol, Erythrite, Tetrahydroxybutane
Four-carbon sugar alcohol (the meso reduction product of erythrose) produced industrially by yeast fermentation of glucose. Roughly 60–70% as sweet as sucrose with a near-zero glycemic and insulinemic response: it is not a substrate for intestinal disaccharidases, hexokinase, or the glycolytic enzymes, so unlike glucose or sorbitol it yields essentially no metabolizable energy. Its small molecule is uniquely well absorbed in the small intestine (~90%), then excreted unchanged in urine; the small colonic fraction is only partly fermented, so it causes markedly less osmotic diarrhoea and gas than higher-MW polyols. Endogenous trace amounts also arise from the pentose-phosphate pathway. Acts as a bulk sweetener and humectant; mild oral non-cariogenic effect since oral bacteria cannot ferment it.
EU food additive E968; ~60–70% the sweetness of sucrose at ~0 kcal/g. JECFA assigned an "ADI not specified" (no numerical limit) and it is FDA GRAS. Best gut tolerance of the polyols due to high small-bowel absorption, though large boluses can still be osmotically laxative; recent observational data link high circulating erythritol to cardiovascular/thrombotic risk, an association still under investigation. Unlike xylitol it poses no acute canine hypoglycemia hazard.