NUTRIOSE ® 06: a useful soluble dietary fibre for added nutritional value

The World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organisation (WHO/FAO 2002) currently recommend that the well-balanced diet required to help control the global epidemic of obesity and for preventing diet-related chronic diseases should include: a balanced energy intake (55–70% from total carbohydrates, 15–30% from total fat and 10–15% from total proteins); foods that release their energy slowly, that is, only about 10% total energy from quickly digested sugars (monoand disaccharides); and about 40% from complex sugars, such as fibres. The recommended daily intake of fibre is variable in different countries, but is around 30 g per day per person in most European countries using fibre quantification based on the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) 2001–03 method (Gordon & Okuma 2002). This efficient, widely recognised and reliable enzymatic-gravimetric high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) method was proposed to the AOAC for the determination of total dietary fibre in foods containing resistant maltodextrin, and is mainly characterised by the fact that it also takes into account low molecular weight resistant oligosaccharides using HPLC, unlike the previous conventional AOAC 985-29 method (Prosky et al. 1985), and the Englyst one (Englyst et al. 1982), which is still used as a reference in the UK (see Buttriss & Stokes 2008). A resistant dextrin, branded under the range’s name NUTRIOSE (NUTRIOSE 06 manufactured by ROQUETTE, Lestrem, France) was launched in 2004 after many years of research. It is mostly resistant to digestion in the small intestine and largely fermented in the colon. According to one definition (Roberfroid 2005) and to different notices published by official committees in different countries (e.g. Italy and France), it is a soluble dietary fibre. It can therefore be added to make up to 20–25% (w/w) of a foodstuff and is officially recognised and labelled as soluble fibre in many countries. As such, it can be one very useful tool to help achieve the nutritional ‘fibre’ goal of the WHO/FAO. In addition to this, more and more evidence is emerging about the benefits that NUTRIOSE can contribute to health as part of a balanced diet, such as reduced blood glucose response and improved gut health. It also offers an outstanding digestive tolerance threshold, allowing its consumption in the amounts best suited to achieving the desired beneficial changes in the gut ecosystem. An overview of these and other nutritional properties, already described in published papers or in papers in press, will be given in this paper. Moreover, as a completely soluble fibre, withstanding extreme conditions of temperature and processing, and very well tolerated when consumed, it is an ideal ingredient for fortifying the fibre content of food and drink; we will briefly conclude on its technical and industrial advantages.