Molecular mobility and the perceived sweetness of sucrose, fructose, and glucose solutions

The general relationship proposed in the literature between molecular mobility of water and the perceived sweetness was investigated. Sucrose, fructose, and glucose solutions, ranging in concentration from 0.15 mol/l to saturation were investigated. The rotational and translational mobilities of water and sugar molecules were monitored using a suite of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. The perceived sweetness was studied using the Time-Intensity (TI) method. Overall, it was found that the perceived sweetness of the sugar solutions, as quantified by the TI method, did not correlate with the measured NMR molecular mobility parameters.