Sweeteners refer to food additives that give food or feed a sweet taste. There are many sweeteners used in the world, and there are several different classification methods: according to their source, they can be divided into natural sweeteners and artificial sweeteners; according to their nutritional value, they can be divided into nutritive sweeteners and non-nutritive sweeteners; according to their chemical structure and properties, they can be divided into sugars and non-sugar sweeteners. Sugar alcohol sweeteners are mostly artificially synthesized, and their sweetness is similar to that of sucrose. Because of their low caloric value or because they have different metabolic processes from glucose, they can still have certain special uses. Non-sugar sweeteners are very sweet, used in small amounts, have very low caloric value, and are mostly not involved in the metabolic process. They are often called non-nutritive or low-calorie sweeteners, called high-sweetness sweeteners, and are an important variety of sweeteners.

Although sugars such as glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose, starch sugar and lactose are also natural sweeteners, they are usually regarded as food raw materials because they have been consumed by humans for a long time and are important nutrients. They are not used as food additives in my country.

The sweeteners commonly referred to refer to three categories: sugar alcohol sweeteners, non-sugar natural sweeteners and artificial synthetic sweeteners.

However, the new natural non-nutritive non-sugar sweetener that is currently being widely promoted is stevioside, also known as steviol glycoside, which is a sweetener obtained by natural extraction of stevia leaves. Its sweetness is 300 times that of sucrose, but the calories are almost zero. It does not participate in the metabolic process and has high sweetness. It is an important variety of sweeteners today. At the same time, it has been consumed for a long time in many countries and does not affect blood sugar levels and insulin levels.