Food Oligosaccharides

A growing awareness of the relationship between diet andhealth has led to an increasing demand for food products that support health beyond simply providing basicnutrition. Digestive health is the largest segment of the burgeoning functional foodmarket worldwide. Incorporation of bioactive oligosaccharides into foods can yield health benefits in thegastrointestinal tract and other parts of the body that are linked via the immunesystem. Because oligosaccharides can be added to a wide variety offoodstuffs, there is much interest within the food industry in incorporating thesefunctional ingredients into healthy food products. Moreover, other areas suchas pharmaceuticals, bioenergy and environmental science can exploitthe physicochemical and physiological properties of bioactiveoligosaccharides too. There is therefore a considerable demand for a concentrated sourceof information on the development and characterization of newoligosaccharides with novel and/or improved bioactivities. Food Oligosaccharides: Production, Analysis andBioactivityis a comprehensive reference on the naturally occurring and synthesised oligosaccharides, which willenable food professionals to select and use these components in their products.It is divided into three sections: (i) Production and bioactivityof oligosaccharides, (ii) Analysis and (iii) Prebiotics in FoodFormulation. The book addresses classical and advanced techniques to structurallycharacterize and quantitatively analyse food bioactive oligosaccharides. It alsolooks at practical issues faced by food industry professionals seeking to incorporateprebiotic oligosaccharides into food products, including the effects ofprocessing on prebiotic bioavailability. This book is essential reading for foodresearchers and professionals, nutritionists and product developers working inthe food industry, and students of Food Science with an interest infunctional foods.