Neohesperidin Dihydrochalcone (NHDC, E959)

About This Product

Neohesperidin dihydrochalcone, NHDC, is the sweetener made by hydrogenating neohesperidin from bitter orange. Its formula is C28H36O15, molecular weight 612.6 and CAS number 20702-77-6, and it carries the European additive number E959. It is supplied at 98 percent purity as a powder.

NHDC is roughly 1,500 to 1,800 times sweeter than sucrose at threshold, but its sweetness builds slowly and lingers with a faintly liquorice, cooling note, so it is rarely used as the sole sweetener. Its real value is as a modifier at a few parts per million. It masks bitterness strongly, which makes it effective in citrus drinks, pharmaceutical syrups and products containing bitter actives, and it acts synergistically with acesulfame K, aspartame, sucralose and cyclamate, rounding off their sweetness profile and allowing lower total sweetener use. It is stable to heat and to the acidity of soft drinks. In the EU it is authorised as E959 within set maximum levels for each food category, while in the United States it is used as a flavouring rather than as an approved sweetener.

It is used in soft drinks and flavoured waters, dairy desserts and yoghurts, confectionery and chewing gum, table-top sweetener blends, pharmaceutical and supplement flavouring, and in animal feed flavouring.

Bio Green Foods supplies NHDC at 98 percent purity, with the full specification on assay, loss on drying, ash, heavy metals and microbiology confirmed with the quotation, in fibre drums.