Inulin thermal stability in prebiotic carbohydrate-enriched araticum whey beverage

Abstract

Inulin is a prebiotic carbohydrate widely used in the food industry due to its health-related claims and its ability to modify/improve the technological properties of food products. However, industrial processes such as thermal treatments, can cause structure changes in prebiotic carbohydrates affecting their health benefits and technological properties, but these aspects have received little attention. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the impact of thermal treatments (70–100 °C/60 s) on inulin chemical stability in a dairy system, araticum flavoured whey beverage. Compared with untreated whey beverage, the thermally processed whey beverages did not exhibit any changes in pH (5.59), total soluble solids (24.63–25.19 °Brix), glucose (16.11–17.97 mg/mL), fructose (17.75–19.49 mg/mL), sucrose (89.00–94.14 mg/mL) and lactose (61.59–67.19 mg/mL). The chromatographic analysis displayed no significant differences in content (GF2-GF4 ranged from 3.04 to 3.28 mg/mL) and profile of inulin (average DP = 10) between untreated and thermally processed beverages, showing that inulin had strong ability to resist thermal degradation in a dairy system. This study has provided consistent and clear results regarding inulin thermal stability, showing that inulin can be successfully added in thermally processed commercial dairy beverages without prejudice to their prebiotic properties.