and a viscous syrup A few years later, he discovered that malted barley had the same effect as the acid (and thereby laid the foundations for a scientific understanding of beer brewing) We now know that starch consists of long chains of glucose molecules, and that both acids and certain plant, animal, and microbial enzymes will break these long chains down into smaller pieces and eventually into individual glucose molecules The sugars make the syrup sweet, and the remaining fragments of glucose chains give the solution a thick, viscous consistency In the United States, the acid technique was used to produce syrup from potato starch in the 1840s, and from corn starch beginning in the 1860s High-Fructose Corn Syrups The 1960s brought the invention of fructose syrups These start out as plain corn or potato syrups, but an additional enzyme process converts some of the glucose sugars into fructose, which is much sweeter and therefore gives the syrups a higher sweetening power The solids in standard high-fructose corn syrup are around 53% glucose and 42% fructose, and provide the same sweetness as the syrup’s equivalent weight in table sugar Because high-fructose syrups are relatively cheap, soft-drink manufacturers began to replace cane and beet sugars with them in the 1980s, and Americans began to consume more corn syrups than cane and beet sugar Today they’re a very important sweetener in food manufacturing Making Corn Syrups To make corn syrups, manufacturers extract starch granules from the kernels of common dent corn (p 477), and then treat them with acid and/or with microbial or malt enzymes to develop a sweet syrup that is then clarified, decolorized, and evaporated to the desired concentration ... from the kernels of common dent corn (p 477), and then treat them with acid and/ or with microbial or malt enzymes to develop a sweet syrup that is then clarified, decolorized, and evaporated to the. ..some of the glucose sugars into fructose, which is much sweeter and therefore gives the syrups a higher sweetening power The solids in standard high-fructose corn syrup are around 53% glucose and. .. replace cane and beet sugars with them in the 1980s, and Americans began to consume more corn syrups than cane and beet sugar Today they’re a very important sweetener in food manufacturing Making Corn