For gel hardness test, 50 g LWE-sucrose/polyols solution was poured into a cylindrical aluminum tube with inner diameter 40 mm, height 70 mm, and then the tube was sealed with plastic wrap. Samples were pretreated according to the method reported by Raikos, Campbell, and Euston (2007): Tubes were heated in a water bath at 90C for 30 min and then cooled down in ice water for 30 min.