METHOD FOR THE PRODUCTION OF SUCRALOSE

The present invention provides a method for producing sucralose from a feed stream including a sucrose-6-acylate in a reaction vehicle. The method includes: (i) reacting the sucrose-6-acylate with a chlorinating agent in order to chlorinate the 4, 1' and 6' positions of the sucrose-6-acylate; (ii) quenching the product stream of (i) with an aqueous solution of a base to provide a sucralose-6-acylate and the chloride salt of said base, wherein the concentration of the aqueous solution of the base is sufficiently high such that at least a portion of the chloride salt of the base is formed as a precipitate; (iii) either: deacylating the sucralose-6-acylate by treating the product stream of (ii) with a base and thereafter removing precipitated salt to provide a product stream including sucralose; or: removing precipitated salt from the product stream of (ii) and thereafter deacylating the sucralose-6-acylate by treating with a base to provide a product stream including sucralose; and (iv) isolating sucralose from the product stream of (iii).