§ Mr. CouchmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to his answer of 6 February,Official Report, column 275, if he will specify the various considerations that led the 1989 Committee on Medical Aspects of Food panel on dietary sugars and human disease to classify fresh fruit, as eaten by humans, as intrinsic sugars.
§ Mr. DorrellThe panel found that the physical location of sugars influences their availability for bacterial metabolism in the mouth and the readiness with which they are absorbed after ingestion. For that reason they considered it would be helpful to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic sugars. They defined intrinsic sugars as being those which form an integral part of certain unprocessed foodstuffs, and which are enclosed in the cell of the food. The sugars present naturally in fresh fruit and vegetables (mainly fructose, glucose and sucrose) fall within that definition.