Category: sweetener
Aliases: E957, Talin, Katemfe, Thaumatin I, Thaumatin II
An intensely sweet plant protein — a single ~207-residue, ~22 kDa polypeptide stabilised by eight disulfide bonds — from the arils of the West African katemfe fruit, Thaumatococcus daniellii. It is roughly 2,000-3,000x sweeter than sucrose by weight, binding the sweet T1R2/T1R3 receptor with a slow-onset, lingering sweetness and a mild licorice note; below sweetness threshold it acts as a flavour enhancer/modifier. As a protein it is digested in the gastrointestinal tract by gastric and pancreatic proteases to its constituent amino acids and absorbed as ordinary dietary peptide/amino-acid nitrogen, so there is no intact systemic exposure and it adds negligible calories at use levels. It is heat-stable in acidic foods but loses sweetness once its disulfide-bonded fold is denatured.