Enzymes in fructooligosaccharides production

CLEMENTZ, ADRIANA L.; GUERRA, LAUREANA; ROMANINI, DIANA

Value-Addition in Food Products and Processing Through Enzyme Technology

Elsevier- Academic Press

Lugar: London; Año: 2022; p. 175 - 188

For decades consumers have selected their food based on sensorial characteristics such as its appearance, taste, and smell. Today, and especially after the pandemic caused by SARS- CoV2 during 2020, consumers have more information about ingredients and food properties, and more aware of chronic diseases. This new paradigm influences the demand of food, which are chosen not only for their nutritional properties but also for the benefits that cause into human health. Functional foods emerge as a response to this healthy lifestyle. They may be defined as industrially processed or natural food that have potentially positive effects on health, in addition with basic nutrition, when regularly consumed within a diverse diet at efficacious levels. Functional foods include: (i) natural foods with bioactive substances such as dietary fiber, (ii) industrial o natural food where harmful ingredients have been removed (like lactose-free or reduced-fat), (iii) foods supplemented with bioactive substances as probiotics, antioxidants, and (iv) conventional food with added beneficial ingredients such as prebiotics. The advance of functional food led to the development of many ingredients as prebiotics which can be defined as shortchain carbohydrates that are nondigestible by gastrointestinal enzymes in humans. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are influential prebiotics composed by units of fructose linked by b-(2-1) bonds with a degree of polymerization (DP) between 2 and 9. These have been generally recognized as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Union (EU). They are functional food ingredient that affect various human physiological functions, promoting positive impact to health. FOS are present naturally in low concentration in many fruits and vegetables. Therefore, to obtain high amount of them, they must be synthetized by the action of enzymes through two ways: (1) hydrolysis of inulin and (2) transfructosylation process from sucrose. Microbial enzymes are preferred for FOS production because the obtention of enzymes from plant sources is affected by seasonal variations (Bali et al., 2015). Nowadays, the focus of some investigations is to produce enzymes from microorganism with high activity and stability that allow reach a maximum concentration of FOS. For decades consumers have selected their food based on sensorial characteristics such as its appearance, taste, and smell. Today, and especially after pandemic caused by SARS- CoV2 during 2020, consumers have more information about ingredients and food properties, and more aware of chronic diseases. This new paradigm influences the demand of food, which are chosen not only for their nutritional properties but also for the benefits that cause into the human health. Functional foods emerge as response to this healthy lifestyle. They may be defined as industrially processed or natural food that have potentially positive effects on health, in addition with basic nutrition, when regularly consumed within a diverse diet at efficacious levels. Functional foods include: (i) natural foods with bioactive substances such as dietary fiber, (ii) industrial o natural food where harmful ingredients have been removed (like lactose-free or reduced-fat), (iii) foods supplemented with bioactive substances as probiotics, antioxidants, and (iv) conventional food with added beneficial ingredients such as prebiotics. The advance of functional food led to the development of many ingredients as prebiotics which can be defined as short chain carbohydrates that are nondigestible by gastrointestinal enzymes in humans. Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) are influential prebiotics composed by units of fructose linked by b-(2-1) bonds with a degree of polymerization (DP) between 2 and 9. These have been generally recognized as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and European Union (EU). They are functional food ingredients that affect various human physiological functions, promoting positive impact to health. FOS are present naturally in low concentrations in many fruits and vegetables. Therefore, to obtain high amount of them, they must be synthetized by the action of enzymes through two ways: (1) hydrolysis of inulin and (2) transfructosylation process from sucrose. Microbial enzymes are preferred for FOS production because the obtention of enzymes from plant sources is affected by seasonal variations. Nowadays, the focus of some investigations is to produce enzymes from microorganism with high activity and stability that allow reach a maximum concentration of FOS.