Tag: Sugar properties

While commonly known for its sweet taste, sugar plays a multi-faceted role in food processing and cooking, providing critical functional properties that go far beyond flavor. Understanding what are the 7 functions of sugar reveals its importance in everything from preservation to creating desirable texture and color.

Monosaccharides, the building blocks of all carbohydrates, are surprisingly uniform in their basic characteristics. All monosaccharides share three core properties: they are sweet-tasting, highly soluble in water, and optically active. These defining features are direct consequences of their unique chemical structure, which includes a carbonyl group and multiple hydroxyl groups.