What is thaumatin?

Thaumatin is a super-sweet­en­ing sweet­en­er of nat­ur­al ori­gin that is extract­ed from the plant Katemfe. But it is as a flavour enhancer that thau­matin shows its true qualities.

A brief introduction

Thaumatin is an umbrel­la term for the pro­teins extract­ed from the plant Katemfe (Thaumatococcusdaniel­lii). Katemfe is a shrub with light pur­ple flow­ers that can grow about 3–4 meters tall. Thaumatin is extract­ed from the seed coat in the red tri­an­gu­lar fruit that grows at the root of the Katemfe bush.

The largest and sweet­est thau­matin pro­teins are called thau­matin I respec­tive­ly thau­matin II. These two do not dif­fer sig­nif­i­cant­ly as the struc­ture of amino acids is similar.

The Katemfe plant grows nat­u­ral­ly in the West African rain­for­est. The plant is found in Ghana, Togo and Sierra Leone, among others.

Popular among the indigenous people

For cen­turies, the fruit of the katemfe plant has been used as a sweet­en­er by the West African peo­ple. In 1839, the English army sur­geon and botanist WF Daniell brought the fruit to England. The sweet­ness in the fruit had remained when he returned, despite the long jour­ney. Daniell lat­er pub­lished an arti­cle on thau­matin in a phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal journal.

But it would not be until the 1970s before researchers began to ful­ly inves­ti­gate thau­matin and its prop­er­ties and com­mer­cial­iza­tion could begin. Since 1979, thau­matin has been an approved ingre­di­ent in Japan. Then fol­lowed, among oth­ers, Great Britain and Australia.

In the EU, thau­matin is approved part­ly as a flavour enhancer and part­ly as a sweet­en­er. The des­ig­na­tion is E957.

Areas of use

As a flavour enhancer, it can be used in dairy prod­ucts, flavoured drinks and in cer­tain chew­ing gums, among oth­er things. In sauces and snacks with uma­mi and spice flavours, thau­matin can enhance these flavours.

As a sweet­en­er, we can find it in jams, mar­malades, choco­late prod­ucts, break­fast cere­als and var­i­ous forms of dec­o­ra­tions and fill­ings, among oth­er things.

But thau­matin can also mask bit­ter­ness and cre­ate syn­er­gy effects with oth­er sweet­en­ers. Let’s return to that in a bit.

Super sweet

Thaumatin is one of the sweet­est sub­stances known to man, it is 2000–3000 times sweet­er than reg­u­lar sug­ar in nor­mal use.

Thaumatin con­tains 4 kcal per gram, but because it is so potent, very small dos­es are need­ed. This means that thau­matin is in prac­tice a calo­rie-free ingre­di­ent. Thaumatin is digest­ed by the body just like any oth­er protein.

Sweet but slow

The taste is sweet but the onset is slow; it may take sev­er­al sec­onds. In addi­tion, thau­matin leaves a liquorice-like after­taste. This means that thau­matin on its own does not reach all the way as a sweet­en­er. However, it can be an excel­lent com­ple­ment to oth­er sweeteners.

A proper masking agent

When it comes to mask­ing metal­lic and bit­ter flavours, thau­matin can come in handy. The sweet­en­er sac­cha­rin has a metal­lic taste that thau­matin can damp­en. The bit­ter­ness from cit­rus fruits can also be cured by thaumatin.

A good exam­ple of when thau­matin real­ly comes into its own is when it is com­bined with ste­vi­ol gly­co­sides. Steviol gly­co­sides are a sweet­en­er of nat­ur­al ori­gin that are extract­ed from the ste­via plant. Steviol gly­co­sides often car­ry a cer­tain bit­ter­ness and liquorice-like after­taste (in addi­tion to new vari­eties such as Reb M).

A happy meeting

Separately, ste­vi­ol gly­co­sides and thau­matin have a super sweet taste with some bit­ter­ness, liquorice-like after­taste and a long after­taste. You may believe that it will only be more of that prod­uct if you com­bine these sweet­en­ers with each other.

But that will not be the case at all. In fact, they mask each oth­er, and the bit­ter­ness and liquorice taste is sub­dued. And as an icing on the cake, thau­matin can improve the inten­si­ty of the sweet­ness of ste­vi­ol glycosides.

However, com­bin­ing ste­vi­ol gly­co­sides with thau­matin require a del­i­cate hand touch. Due to its high sweet­ness, it places high demands on dos­ing and mix­ing technique.

Read more

Want to learn more about ste­via and ste­vi­ol gly­co­sides? Then take a look at these articles:

• Stevia – from seed to Eureba
• Stevia – the sweet plant that chal­lenged the giant companies
• Why you should sweet­en with Reb M
• How we safe­guard qual­i­ty – from cul­ti­va­tion to production