Description
- Inversion is the process in which sugar is split into its two component sugars, glucose and fructose, and the resulting product is invert sugar, a liquid sugar with equal parts glucose and fructose.
- Because fructose is sweeter than sucrose or glucose, invert sugar is sweeter than white sugar.
- 50% invert sugar is ½ sucrose, ¼ glucose and ¼ fructose, because only half of the sucrose has been inverted.
- The ratio of sucrose to invert sugar in liquid invert sugar depends on which function is required—it is mainly used by food manufacturers to retard crystallization or retain moisture in packaged foods.
- You can make it at home: when a recipe calls for a sugar to be boiled gently in a mixture of water and lemon juice, the product is invert sugar.
