sucrose ester and ether products , useful as food or beverage bulking agents , reduced calorie sweeteners , fat replacement agents , stabilizing agents , thickening agents and emulsifying agents ; adhesives ; biodegradable plastics and films ; sizing agents for paper and textiles ; ethical pharmaceuticals and new fibers are prepared by using a two - phase reaction system in which sucrose is dissolved in an alkaline , aqueous solution and an acidic reagent such as a bifunctional acid dichloride or epoxide is added to the sucrose in a water - immiscible organic solvent . several types of products are produced : water - insoluble sucrose ester copolymers ; water - soluble sucrose ester copolymers ; sucrose ester dimers ; and intramolecular , cyclic sucrose esters . these products can be further varied by using different kinds of acid dichlorides or epoxides that contain different kinds of functional groups . the reaction proceeds at the interface of the water / organic solvent solutions whereby there is imparted a specificity that restricts the reaction to the 6 and 6 ′ primary alcohol groups of sucrose . the reactions can be selected for each of the four basic types of products by controlling the various reaction parameters .