Selected Fructooligosaccharide Composition of Pet-Food Ingredients

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Abstract
Functional foods have been described as foods that provide benefits beyond basic nutrition and may prevent disease or promote health. A functional food ingredient that has received much attention is fructooligosaccharides (FOS). Fructooligosaccharides occur naturally in many plants (Mitsuoka et al. 1987, Spiegel et al. 1994, Tashiro et al. 1992) and have been shown to exhibit beneficial health effects by stimulating the growth of bifidobacteria in the human colon, by suppression of putrefactive pathogens and by reduction of serum cholesterol concentrations (Gibson and Roberfroid 1995, Hidaka et al. 1986, Tomomatsu, 1994).