Glycerin is also well known as Glycerol. In foods and beverages, glycerol serves as a humectant, solvent and sweetener, and may help preserve foods.

It is also used as filler in commercially prepared low-fat foods (e.g., cookies), and as a thickening agent in liqueurs.

Glycerol also serves as a way, along with water, to preserve certain types of leaves. Glycerol is also used as a sugar substitute.

In this regard, it has approximately 27 calories per teaspoon and is 60% as sweet as sucrose. Although it has about the same food energy as table sugar, it does not raise blood sugar levels, nor does it feed the bacteria that form plaques and cause dental cavities