Abstract
Prebiotic carbohydrates derived from lactulose (OsLu) are appealing ingredients that provide beneficial effects following their fermentation by the gut microbiota; however, more investigation is needed to evaluate their technological properties and applicability as a functional food ingredient in the market. In this paper, a comparative study on the rheological and thermal behavior of OsLu and a commercial mixture of galactooligosaccharides (GOS) was carried out. In both cases, there was a strong influence of temperature and shear rate on viscosity. Viscosity of OsLu was higher than that of commercial GOS and variations and rheopexy cycles were also higher for OsLu. The exponential increase of viscosity associated with the structural changes took place later in OsLu than in commercial GOS, suggesting more stability to the shear over time in the former. More stability of OsLu was also observed in the study of the effect of temperature on viscosity. In addition, the thermal study indicated different behavior of both prebiotics under the assayed conditions, showing that OsLu have lower values of glass transition temperature (Tg) than commercial GOS and that commercial GOS are more sensible against humidity. The results here obtained provide important information on the treatment and storage conditions of these prebiotic ingredients during the elaboration of functional foods.
Highlights
The increasing interest toward intestinal function has promoted obtaining a wide range of oligosaccharides with enough scientific evidence of prebiotic activity [1,2,3]; prebiotic oligosaccharides are considered functional food components due to their outstanding technological properties that can improve the sensory features in a number of food applications
Prebiotic carbohydrates derived from lactulose (OsLu) are appealing ingredients that provide beneficial effects following their fermentation by the gut microbiota; more investigation is needed to evaluate their technological properties and applicability as a functional food ingredient in the market
At the sight of the results here shown it is possible to conclude that the rheological behavior of both Oligosaccharides derived from lactulose (OsLu) and Vivinal GOS syrups was strongly influenced by the shear rate, shearing time, and temperature
Summary
The increasing interest toward intestinal function has promoted obtaining a wide range of oligosaccharides with enough scientific evidence of prebiotic activity [1,2,3]; prebiotic oligosaccharides are considered functional food components due to their outstanding technological properties that can improve the sensory features in a number of food applications In this sense, the food industry is recently paying attention to the benefits of incorporating different prebiotic oligosaccharides in the elaboration of foodstuffs to modify texture and replace fat or as low-calorie sweetener [4, 5]. The commercially available preparations of GOS are formed by mixtures with variable composition and concentration depending on the source and charge of enzyme, initial substrate amount, temperature and time, the different formed structures determining their physiological effects and their physicochemical properties, and, their rheology [1] As it is known, the knowledge of the rheological behavior of oligosaccharide solutions may be of paramount importance in food process design, evaluation, and modeling. According to Van Leusen et al [8], Journal of Food Quality
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