Jump to content

Course:FNH200/Assignments/2025/Gatorade - Regular VS Zero

From UBC Wiki

Very briefly introduce your products here

This is a template for your assignment. Feel free to modify the headings and remove all the tips and instructions as you add details of your assignment here.

Briefly introduce your food products (Optional)

Select a food available in Canada and one of its 'low fat', 'zero sugar', etc. alternative. Your options are unlimited: ice cream, cookies, beverage, and of course the wide and wild range of flavours, too. The two products that you are comparing should be similar, with one of them an alternative version of the other.

Post pictures (Mandatory)

Include photos of the two products of your choice, clearly showing the ingredient lists and the overall labels - mandatory, if you don't show it, the TA's can't mark the rest.

Instructions on how to add photos and images to UBC Wiki can be found here: https://wiki.ubc.ca/Help:Adding_Media/Images_and_Pictures

Images from Wikimedia Commons can be embedded easily.

Ingredient lists (4 points)

  1. Type out the lists of ingredients
  2. Identify fat substitutes, sugar substitutes, and/or additives used, if there is any
  3. Explain the roles of fat substitutes, sugar substitutes, and/or additives used in terms of the functional properties they contribute to the product
    • Gatorade blue:
      • Sugar substitutes:
        • None
      • Fat substitutes:
        • None
      • Sugars (not substitutes, just noting since it's a common point of confusion):
        • Sugar (sucrose) - standard table sugar, the primary sweetener
        • Dextrose - a simple sugar (glucose) often added alongside sucrose in sports drinks for a quicker-absorbing carbohydrate source
      • Additives:
        • Citric acid - adds tartness and helps preserve the product by lowering pH
        • Natural and artificial flavor - flavoring blend combining both natural and synthetic flavor compounds
        • Salt - seasoning and electrolyte replacement (sodium)
        • Sodium citrate - buffers acidity, keeping tartness consistent; also contributes sodium
        • Monopotassium phosphate - a source of potassium (electrolyte) and phosphorus. It also acts as a buffering agent to stabilize pH, and is commonly used specifically in sports drinks for this purpose[1]
        • Modified food starch - thickener/stabilizer for texture
        • Glycerol ester of rosin (ester gum) - emulsifier/weighting agent that keeps citrus flavor oils evenly suspended, capped at 100 ppm of the finished beverage under FDA rules[2]
        • Blue 1 - synthetic food dye, certified batch-by-batch under FDA regulation[2]
  4. Gatorade Blue Zero:
    • Fat substitutes:
      • None
    • Sugar substitutes:
      • Sucralose - artificial sweetener, 600 times sweeter than sugar, passes through the body largely unmetabolized so it's essentially calorie-free[3]
      • Acesulfame potassium (Ace-K) - artificial sweetener, about 200 times sweeter than sugar, fast-hitting but slightly bitter alone, so it's usually blended with sucralose to smooth out the taste[3]
    • Additives
      • Citric acid - natural-ish acid that adds tartness and helps preserve the product by lowering pH
      • Sodium citrate - buffers acidity so the tartness stays consistent. It also contributes sodium
      • Salt - basic seasoning and electrolyte replacement
      • Potassium phosphate - electrolyte source, also helps stabilize pH
      • Modified food starch - thickener that gives the drink body and helps keep ingredients evenly mixed
      • Mixed triglycerides - emulsifier that helps disperse flavor oils evenly through the water
      • Glycerol ester of rosin (ester gum) - emulsifier/weighting agent that keeps citrus flavor oils suspended so they don't float or separate[2]
      • Blue 1 - synthetic food dye for color[2]
      • Natural flavor - proprietary flavoring blend, source unspecified
  5. Compare and contrast the lists of the two products and explain differences

Labels (1 points)

  1. Provide detailed description of the information found on the labels
  2. Indicate whether the information complies with the regulatory requirements as outlined in Lesson 04.

Personal Choice (5 points)

Please submit your individual component of this assignment on Canvas to protect your privacy and your personal opinion

References

Please use the Wikipedia reference style. Provide a citation for every sentence, statement, thought, or bit of data not your own, giving the author, year, AND page.

Note: Before writing your wiki article on the UBC Wiki, it may be helpful to review the tips in Wikipedia: Writing better articles

  1. ↑ Foodadditives.net. (2021, January 13). What is potassium dihydrogen phosphate (E340i) in food and uses as a fertilizer? https://foodadditives.net/phosphates/potassium-dihydrogen-phosphate/
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Glycerol ester of rosin, 21 C.F.R. § 172.735 (2026). https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-B/part-172/subpart-H/section-172.735
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (n.d.). Aspartame and other sweeteners in food. FDA.gov. https://www.fda.gov/food/food-additives-petitions/aspartame-and-other-sweeteners-food


This Food Science resource was created by Course:FNH200.
Retrieved from "https://wiki.ubc.ca/index.php?title=Course:FNH200/Assignments/2025/Gatorade_-_Regular_VS_Zero&oldid=901355"