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Functional food properties of non-digestible oligosaccharides: a consensus report from the ENDO project (DGXII AIRII-CT94-1095)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 March 2007

Jan Van Loo ,
John Cummings ,
Nathalie Delzenne ,
Hans Englyst ,
Anne Franck ,
Mark Hopkins ,
Nadine Kok ,
George Macfarlane ,
Dorothy Newton  and
Michael Quigley
...Show all authors
Jan Van Loo*
Affiliation:
ORAFTI, Aandorenstraat 1, B3300 Tienen, Belgium
John Cummings
Affiliation:
Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 2DH, UK
Nathalie Delzenne
Affiliation:
Catholic University Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Hans Englyst
Affiliation:
Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 2DH, UK
Anne Franck
Affiliation:
ORAFTI, Aandorenstraat 1, B3300 Tienen, Belgium
Mark Hopkins
Affiliation:
Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 2DH, UK
Nadine Kok
Affiliation:
Catholic University Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
George Macfarlane
Affiliation:
Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 2DH, UK
Dorothy Newton
Affiliation:
Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 2DH, UK
Michael Quigley
Affiliation:
Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 2DH, UK
Marcel Roberfroid
Affiliation:
Catholic University Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
Trinette van Vliet
Affiliation:
TNO, Zeist, The Netherlands
Ellen van den Heuvel
Affiliation:
TNO, Zeist, The Netherlands
*
*Corresponding author: Dr Jan Van Loo, fax +32 16 801308, email jvl@rafti.eunet.be
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Abstract

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This paper results from the final phase of the ENDO project (DGXII AIRII-CT94-1095), a European Commission-funded project on non-digestible oligosaccharides (NDO). All participants in the programme met to perform a consensus exercise on the possible functional food properties of NDO. Topics studied during the project (including a workshop on probiotics and prebiotics) and related aspects, for which considerable evidence has been generated recently, were evaluated on the basis of existing published scientific evidence. There was a general consensus that: (1) there is strong evidence for a prebiotic effect of NDO in human subjects. A prebiotic effect was defined as a food-induced increase in numbers and/or activity predominantly of bifidobacteria and lactic acid bacteria in the human large intestine; (2) there is strong evidence for the impact that NDO have on bowel habit; (3) there is promising evidence that consumption of inulin-type fructans may result in increased Ca absorption in man; (4) there are preliminary indications that inulin-type fructans interact with the functioning of lipid metabolism; (5) there is preliminary evidence in experimental animals of a preventive effect against colon cancer. Human nutrition studies are needed to substantiate these findings. It was concluded that the nutritional properties of NDO may prove to be a key issue in nutritional research in the future.

Keywords

Functional foodsNon-digestible oligosaccharidesPrebiotics
Type
Research Article
Information
British Journal of Nutrition , Volume 81 , Issue 2 , February 1999 , pp. 121 - 132
Copyright
Copyright © The Nutrition Society 1999

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