Sweetness is but one of the positive features of sucrose (regular sugar). Like sugar, tagatose also provides bulk and structure for foods, reduces water activity to help prevent food spoilage, depresses freezing temperature to make ice cream smooth, caramelizes, and does a variety of other things.
More so than many other sugar alternatives, tagatose is fully functional in foods and beverages.
Tagatose…here are a few general features, but more details (including some examples in applications) are described here.
90% as sweet as sucrose • Clean taste • Sweetness potency relative to sucrose is consistent across concentrations (unlike some other sweeteners) • Provides a sweet, fruity, caramel-like flavor profile • Blends well with other high-intensity sweeteners and longer polysaccharides • Absorbs water from the environment and retains it just as well as sucrose • Reduces water activity better than sucrose • Anti-microbial • Reduces stickiness • Accelerates browning • Readily crystallizes • Depresses freezing point