Acesulfame K

Acesulfame potassium, frequently written acesulfame K or Ace-K, is a high-intensity sweetener roughly two hundred times as sweet as sucrose. It is not metabolised for energy and contributes no calories. Its practical advantages in formulation are stability — it withstands heat and a wide pH range, so it survives baking and retorting where some other sweeteners do not — and a long shelf life in solution. It carries a slight bitter or metallic note at higher levels, so it is very commonly blended with other sweeteners, particularly sucralose or aspartame, which mask each other's off-notes and give a rounder profile. The material is a white crystalline powder, freely soluble in water.