[Avodah] Diet Coke

[Jonathan Baker]

RMi:
> On Thu, Mar 31, 2011 at 10:32:49AM -0700, Saul.Z.Newman at kp.org wrote:
> : in studying the  various  pesach guides at  
> : http://www.kashrut.com/Passover/   , it is interesting to note  that  many 
> :  mainstream hechshers are not recommending  diet  coke  use  for 
> : ashkenazim.
 
> Sucralose (including the brand name "Splenda"), and aspartame (such as
> "Equal") are generally made from corn syrup.
 
That's not my understanding.  Corn-derived powders are used as bulking 
agents in Splenda and NutraSweet as sold for home use, so that these
chemicals which are hundreds of times as sweet as sugar, can be handled
in usable quantities (teaspoons and reasonable fractions thereof).  I
don't know if commercial forms, such as might be added to soda syrups,
would be mixed with (corn-derived) maltodextrin or dextrose, or might
be sold in pure form.  Sucralose is chlorinated sucrose, so it derives
from cane sugar, rather than from HFCS which is, as its name implies,
fructose.  Aspartame is from L-aspartic acid, which is produced bacterially.
I suppose there might be issues with the growth medium on which the E. coli
live.

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/biology/enztech/aminoacid.html
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5498709.html

In fact, looking around, one can buy liquid aspartame or sucralose for
manufacturing - so why would there be an issue of kitniyot for diet 
Coke?  Anyone know more about this?

--
        name: jon baker              web: http://www.panix.com/~jjbaker
     address: jjbaker at panix.com     blog: http://thanbook.blogspot.com