Erythritol

Erythritol is a four-carbon sugar alcohol found in some fruits and fermented foods. It tastes sweet, provides very little energy, and is used as a low-calorie sweetener.

Sugar alcohol: A carbohydrate-derived compound in which a sugar’s carbonyl group is reduced to an alcohol group. Erythritol belongs to this chemical family, whose members are also called polyols.
Sugar substitute: An ingredient used to replace some or all of the sweetness or bulk supplied by sugar. Erythritol replaces sugar in products designed to reduce calories or added sugars.
Carbohydrate: A class of organic compounds that includes sugars, starches, and related molecules. Erythritol is derived from carbohydrate chemistry but is classified as a sugar alcohol.
Acceptable daily intake: An estimate of the amount of a substance that can be consumed daily over a lifetime without appreciable health risk. Regulators have not set a numerical acceptable daily intake for erythritol in several major jurisdictions.
Fruit: The mature ovary of a flowering plant, often containing seeds and serving as food. Erythritol occurs naturally in small amounts in some fruits, including pears and melons.
Intestinal absorption: The movement of digested substances from the gut lumen into the body. Most ingested erythritol enters the bloodstream from the small intestine rather than reaching the colon.
Stevia: A high-intensity sweetener made from steviol glycosides extracted from Stevia rebaudiana leaves. Stevia is often blended with erythritol to balance sweetness and reduce lingering aftertaste.
Erythrose: A four-carbon monosaccharide with an aldehyde group and two stereogenic centers. Erythritol’s name and carbon framework are associated with this four-carbon sugar.
Food and Drug Administration: The United States federal agency responsible for regulating food, drugs, and related products. The FDA classifies erythritol as generally recognized as safe for specified food uses.
Wine: An alcoholic beverage produced by fermenting grape juice or other fruit juice. Yeast fermentation can produce erythritol, so it occurs in some fermented beverages.

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