Introduction to Inulin as Prebiotic and Functional Food

Functional food products have become an important part of todays diet as the consumers are more aware of their contributions to the general health and well being.They demand foods that taste great, are fat- and/or calorie-reduced, and they are interested in foods that provide addedhealth benefits. These foods must be convenient and safe.Modern lifestyle limits the time for food preparation, and with increasing prosperity the market for Functional food products expands rapidly. Functional foods can be defined as food products that provide specific healthbenefits beyond the traditional nutrients they contain or foods containing significant levels of biologically active components that impart health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Prebiotics are defined as „non-digestible food ingredients that may beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or the activity of a limited number of bacteria in the colon‟. Prebiotics are classified as functional food ingredients under the categories of inulin-type fructans and synthetic fructooligosaccharides.Inulin is a polydisperse fructan and it is a mixture of oligomers and polymers of chain of fructosyl units with one glucosyl unit at the end of a chain.Inulin and oligofructose belong to class of carbohydrate known as fructan that can be used as functional food ingredients able to reduce the risk of many diseases, i.e. lowering blood cholesterol level, reduces blood sugar level. Inulin is also used to improve the viability of probiotics in fermented milk such as yoghurt during storage

Introduction to Inulin as Prebiotic and Functional Food Keywords:

Inulin , Functional Food , Prebiotic