Spring 2002 Issue — NUTRIOSE® FB: Health ingredient breakthrough by Roquette

Cécile Dusautois

Roquette Frères, Lestrem, France

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Fibres provide an essential nutrient in our diet. They have many positive effects on our health such as gut regulation, moderation of glucidic and lipidic metabolism, facilitation of mineral absorption, etc.

However, in today's typical diet the quantity of fibres ingested is far below the Recommended Daily Intake (15-20 g/day/person, vs a RDI of 30 g/day/person). There is therefore an urgent need to compensate for this shortfall. One way is by adding fibre to food products.

Many fibres are available on the market to answer consumer needs. Two main categories can be identified:

• insoluble fibres
• soluble fibres.

The main difference between them is the solubility in water, which has a number of effects on the technological properties affecting food product formulation.

Insoluble fibres include for example wheat fibre, oat fibre, pea fibre and potato fibre. Their digestive tolerance is usually low. They must therefore be used in small quantities in food formulation to avoid laxative effects. Another important limit on their use is their viscosity. They usually consist of long-chain polymers, which lead to the development of significant viscosity in food. They also have a water-binding capacity; on the one hand this is a good reason for their use in sausage, for example, but is a limitation in other applications like bread. They contribute to haze formation, which is sometimes disadvantageous in liquid formulations. Another limiting factor is the fibre's organoleptic properties. For instance orange fibre may not find out interesting in dairy applications.

The most popular soluble fibres are pectins, gums (guar, acacia) and fructans (fructooligosaccharides or FOS, inulin). They too have intrinsic properties limiting their use.

FOS for example is not stable under acidic conditions. They hydrolysis of FOS leads to fructose with a high sweetening power and browning ability. More importantly, as FOS is hydrolysed it is not a fibre any longer in the finished product, or the food manufacturer has to overdose it in the formulation. Another limit is its tolerance. FOS is largely fermented in the large intestine (89%). Therefore its tolerance is rather low: 15-20 g/day/person.

There is clearly a need for a fibre, that is both well tolerated and stable under all food processing conditions. NUTRIOSE® FB1 is Roquette's answer.

An Original Process for a Unique Product NUTRIOSE® FB is the name given to a dextrin, obtained through a carefully controlled process. The molecular weight has been specially chosen for optimum digestion and viscosity. It contains more indigestible links than traditional dextrins or starches. That explains the fibre effect (Table 1). The fibre content of NUTRIOSE® FB is about 85% on dry substance.

A Well Equilibrated and Tolerated Product Due to the profile of the product, its digestion occurs along all the digestive tract (Fig 1). About 15% are hydrolysed at the end of the small intestine, about 75% are fermented in the large intestine, the rest (about 10%) are excreted in the faeces.

Fig 1. Digestion of NUTRIOSE® FB

There is no sudden and excessive fermentation in the large intestine, that would cause flatulences, abdominal pain and/or diarrhea.

That explains the very high tolerance of NUTRIOSE® FB, as demonstrated in a clinical study. It was carried out at the TNO, Netherlands, on 20 adult healthy volunteers, after progressive adaptation to the product. It is a randomised double-blind cross-over study (Fig 2).

Fig 2. Tolerance study - protocol

After a run-in period of one week, two treatment periods of three weeks followed, separated by a wash out period of one week. Treatments differed in gradual build-up (10, 30 and 60 g/d or 15, 45 and 80 g/d) and type of product (NUTRIOSE® FB or GLUCIDEX® 6 the placebo: maltodextrin of equivalent DE).

NUTRIOSE® FB is well tolerated up to 45 g/d/person. Beyond this dosage, an increase in flatulences was observed. No diarrhea was observed at 80 g/d/person. A publication is pending.

NUTRIOSE® FB is a fibre and should present the general properties of fibres, as described previously. Clinical studies have been carried out to demonstrate its health benefit. The publications are pending.

Interesting results have been obtained on the following topics:

• Tolerance: short- and long-term tolerance study on human healthy volunteers; Tolerance of children aged 8-14 is being evaluated;
• Effect on gut flora;
• Glycaemic and insulinemic indices on healthy and type 2- diabetic volunteers;
• Mineral absorption;
• Caloric value;
• Dental aspects.

A Remarkable Dextrin

NUTRIOSE® FB is stable under all acid and heat conditions encountered in food processes.

NUTRIOSE® FB resists extreme pH, as illustrated Fig 3 at pH = 2.

Fig 3. NUTRIOSE® FB acid stability versus FOS

NUTRIOSE® FB withstands all process conditions, from sterilisation, through pasteurisation to cooking.

NUTRIOSE® FB is a fibre and remains active as fibre in the finished product throughout the latter's shelf life. The food manufacturer can therefore legitimately claim the fibre content for a product, according to the guidelines given by CODEX expressed in Table 2.

NUTRIOSE® FB has a neutral taste, i.e. no sweetness, no after-taste. It develops low viscosity in the food formulation and is highly soluble.

NUTRIOSE® FB is an easy-to-use health ingredient for many foods (Figure 4).

Fig 4. Many food uses of NUTRIOSE® FB.

Examples of use are drinks, confectionery, biscuits, bars, dairy products, pastries, fruit preparations... ROQUETTE's team of specialists is at your disposal to help you develop your formulas.

NUTRIOSE® FB is a register trademark from ROQUETTE FRANCE for a dextrin.

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