Nondigestible Functional Oligosaccharides: Enzymatic Production and Food Applications for Intestinal Health

Nondigestible functional oligosaccharides are of particular interest in recent years because of their unique prebiotic activities, technological characteristics, and physiological effects. Among different types of strategies for the production of nondigestible functional oligosaccharides, enzymatic methods are preferred owing to the predictability and controllability of the structure and composition of the reaction products. Nondigestible functional oligosaccharides have been proved to show excellent prebiotic effects as well as other benefits to intestinal health. They have exhibited great application potential as functional food ingredients for various food products with improved quality and physicochemical characteristics. This article reviews the research progress on the enzymatic production of several typical nondigestible functional oligosaccharides in the food industry, including galacto-oligosaccharides, xylo-oligosaccharides, manno-oligosaccharides, chito-oligosaccharides, and human milk oligosaccharides. Moreover, their physicochemical properties and prebiotic activities are discussed as well as their contributions to intestinal health and applications in foods.

Effect of xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) addition on technological and sensory attributes of cookies

Xylo-oligosaccharides (XOS) are nondigestible oligosaccharides (NDO) which are recently authorized as novel food ingredients in European Union. Present study introduces the effect of XOS on baking quality of cookies. Color measurements proved that XOS enhance the caramelization during baking. Texture profile, geometry, and baking loss of cookies showed little changes due to XOS addition indicating that XOS are easy to incorporate into baking products. Based on sensory evaluation by expert panel, it was observed that XOS increased the "baked character" of the cookies as indicated by the increased caramel flavor, darker color, and crispier texture. XOS addition also increased the sweet taste and global taste intensity of cookies suggesting that in bakery products XOS evolve a flavor enhancer role. XOS proved to be a promising new alternative to increase dietary fiber content of cereal-based cookies.

Biotechnological approaches for the production of prebiotics and their potential applications

Worldwide interest in prebiotics have been increasing extensively both as food ingredients and pharmacological supplements, since they have beneficial properties for human health. Prebiotics not only stimulate the growth of healthy bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli in the gut but also increase the resistance towards pathogens. In addition to this, they also act as dietary fiber, an energy source for intestinal cells after converting to short-chain fatty acids, a stimulator of immune systems, sugar replacer etc. Moreover, due to heat resistant properties, they are able to maintain their intact form during the baking process and allow them to be incorporated into every day food products. Thus, they can be interesting and useful ingredients in the development of novel functional foods. This review provides comprehensive information about the different biotechnological techniques employed in the production of prebiotics and their potential applications in different areas.