Development of natural prebiotic ingredients derived from Brazilian agricultural byproducts

Abstract

Plant-derived functional foods, in particular fruits, can be considered one of the most innovative strategies for health promotion, as they provide benefits to body physiology beyond their intrinsic nutritional level. The use of functional foods has been recommended in particular to control chronic diseases, as it requires prolonged use in order to obtain the desired health effects. The sales of microbiome modulating ingredients is one of the fastest growing categories in the functional ingredients market. Prebiotic ingredient for human nutrition global sales reached US$2 billion last year with at annual growth rate of 20%. The agricultural byproducts being studied on this project are available every year at large volumes and their commercial exploration represents an extraordinary opportunity of value generation and, in some cases, of environmental impact reduction. Following the confirmation of the prebiotic activity of the studied agricultural byproducts, we now seek the technological development for the prebiotic activity optimization, the technical standardization of the food ingredient and fulfill the regulatory requirements for product approval and registration prior to commercial launch. The activities include the prebiotic activity optimization, based on the oligomerization degree and solubility. Enzymatic hydrolysis studies will assess the impact on oligomerization profile and the effect on the prebiotic activity, indirectly monitored small chain fatty acids (SCFA) quantitation in fermentation studies. Moreover, some microbiome bacteria known for their functional role as SCFA producing and in modulating different physiological processes will be quantitatively analyzed by qPCR. Finally, the industrial process upscale in pilot batches and the definition of a commercial technical specification will be followed by the safety studies required for regulatory approval. (AU)