Inverted sugar syrup

Inverted sugar syrup (also called invert syrup) is an edible mixture of two simple sugars—glucose and fructose—that is made by heating sucrose (table sugar) with water. It is thought to be sweeter than table sugar,and foods that contain it retain moisture and crystallize less easily. Bakers, who call it invert syrup, may use it more than other sweeteners. Though inverted sugar syrup can be made by heating table sugar in water alone, the reaction can be sped up by adding lemon juice, cream of tartar or other catalysts often without changing the flavor noticeably. The mixture of the two simple sugars is formed by a process of hydrolysis of sucrose. This mixture has the opposite direction of optical rotation as the original sugar, which is why it is called an invert sugar. Table sugar (sucrose) is converted to invert sugar by hydrolysis. Heating a mixture or solution of table sugar and water breaks the chemical bond that links together the two simple-sugar components. The balanced chemical equation for the hydrolysis of sucrose into glucose and fructose is: Once a sucrose solution has had some of its sucrose turned into glucose and fructose the solution is no longer said to be pure. The gradual decrease in purity of a sucrose solution as it is hydrolyzed affects a chemical property of the solution called optical rotation that can be used to figure out how much of the sucrose has been hydrolyzed and therefore whether the solution has been inverted or not. A kind of light called plane polarized light can be shone through a sucrose solution as it is heated up for hydrolysis. Such light has an 'angle' that can be measured using a tool called a polarimeter. When such light is shone through a solution of pure sucrose it comes out the other side with a different angle than when it entered; its angle is therefore said to be 'rotated' and how many degrees the angle has changed (the degree of its rotation or its 'optical rotation') is given a letter name, α {displaystyle alpha } (alpha). When the rotation between the angle the light has when it enters and when it exits is in the clockwise direction, the light is said to be 'rotated right' and α {displaystyle alpha } is given to have a positive angle like 64  degrees {displaystyle 64{ ext{ degrees}}} . When the rotation between the angle the light has when it enters and when it exits is in the counterclockwise direction, the light is said to be 'rotated left' and α {displaystyle alpha } is given a negative angle like − 39  degrees {displaystyle -39{ ext{ degrees}}} . When plane polarized light enters and exits a solution of pure sucrose its angle is rotated 66.5  degrees {displaystyle 66.5{ ext{ degrees}}} (clockwise or to the right). As the sucrose is heated up and hydrolyzed the amount of glucose and fructose in the mixture increases and the optical rotation decreases. After α {displaystyle alpha } passes zero and becomes a negative optical rotation, meaning that the rotation between the angle the light has when it enters and when it exits is in the counter clockwise direction, it is said that the optical rotation has 'inverted' its direction. This leads to the definition of an 'inversion point' as the per cent amount sucrose that has to be hydrolyzed before α {displaystyle alpha } equals zero. Any solution which has passed the inversion point (and therefore has a negative value of α {displaystyle alpha } ) is said to be 'inverted'.