What happens during the process of inverting sugars?

The process of inverting sugars specifically refers to the hydrolysis of sucrose, a disaccharide, into its constituent monosaccharides, glucose and fructose. This reaction occurs in the presence of water and typically involves the use of an acid or an enzyme, such as invertase or sucrase, which facilitates the cleavage of the glycosidic bond in sucrose.

This transformation not only alters the sweetness profile of the resulting solution—glucose and fructose are sweeter than sucrose—but it also allows for the use of these simpler sugars in various applications ranging from brewing to confections. The term "inversion" originates from the observation that the rotation of plane-polarized light changes direction when sucrose is converted into glucose and fructose, hence the label "invert sugar."

In contrast, the other options refer to processes or conversions that do not characterize the inversion of sugars. Glucose converting into maltose, the transformation of fructose into sucrose, and the extraction of galactose from starch do not relate to the splitting of sucrose and fail to encapsulate the key concept of sugar inversion.