Passion fruit nectar sweetened with stevia and sucralose: Is perception affected by the regular consumption of sweeteners or diabetes?

Abstract

The partial/total sugar replacement by sweeteners in processed beverages is a worldwide tendency. In this context, we assessed how 460 Brazilian participants perceived passion fruit nectars sweetened with different concentrations of stevia and sucralose and evaluated if the differences in sweetness preferences could be explained due to the differences in participants' personal profile (especially prevalence of diabetes and consumption habits of sweeteners). From the results of the ideal of sweetness (IS), consumers were divided into 4 clusters, with preferences of 0.17–0.57% for stevia and 0.14–0.40% for sucralose. The participants’ profile evaluation in each cluster showed that sweetness preference was not determined by diabetes and regular consumption of sweeteners, but was affected by the body mass index of the participants, with a high percentage of obese/overweight people in the cluster that preferred over sweetened samples (P < 0.05). The sweetness strongly impacted the samples acceptance, being observed high rejection of nectars with sweetness below of IS (P < 0.05) and acceptance of samples over sweetened for most clusters. Results from the Check-all-that-applied test helped to explain the different levels of sample acceptance among the clusters, whereby cluster 1 (lower IS value) was less sensitive to acid and astringency in unsweetened samples while cluster 4 (higher IS value) had no perception of cloying and less perception of sweetener aftertaste than other groups (P < 0.05). Therefore, these results highlighted the wide range of sweetness preferences among the participants and the negative consequences of under/over sweetness of passion fruit nectar, being useful for guiding product development in food industry and food policy actions.