With Sternzym FOS L, SternEnzym now provides a means of producing prebiotic fructooligosaccharides (FOS) from sucrose. This gives sugar manufacturers another way to make good use of this comparatively low-cost sugar. Prebiotics feature added nutritional value and have very versatile applications in the food industry.
Manufacturers are increasingly trying to upgrade their food products with added nutritional value. Thus, also prebiotics are gaining in importance, as these fibre compounds are known to selectively promote the growth of beneficial gut bacteria.
Size exclusion chromatography graph showing the dosage dependent conversion of sucrose to kestose (GF2), nystose (GF3) and fructosyl nystose (GF4). Higher dosages of Fructosyltransferase increase the polymerisation increasing the proportion of GF4 and GF3 in the mix.
Enzymes are an effective way to produce these valuable oligosaccharides. Common starting materials are the fructose polysaccharide inulin and the disaccharide sucrose.
With Sternzym FOS L, the company’s enzyme designers have taken a new approach to produce FOS from sucrose. Thereby, a combination of hydrolytic and transferring enzyme activities leads to the desired result.
After the hydrolysis of sucrose, the resulting fructosyl groups are transferred to an additional sucrose molecule or to an existing fructooligosaccharide. This way, mainly the well-known FOS kestose (GF2), nystose (GF3) and fructosyl nystose (GF4) are formed, whose proportions can be adjusted by various parameters. With the appropriate use of the enzyme, up to 60 % of sucrose can be converted into nutritionally valuable FOS.
