Enzymatic production of other lactose-derived prebiotic candidates

As presented in "Chapter 4, Enzymatic Production of Galacto-Oligosaccharides and Chapter 5, Enzymatic Production of Lactulose," galacto-oligosaccharides and lactulose are the most significant health-promoting oligosaccharides derived from lactose. However, several other products derived from lactose by either chemical or enzymatic conversion are valuable assets having a variety of food and nonfood uses. This chapter provides information regarding production technologies, applications, and current status for lactosucrose, lactitol, lactobionic acid, tagatose, epilactose, and fructosyl-galacto-oligosaccharides. Most of them are candidate prebiotics, even though not fulfilling all requirements to be considered as such, and also provide functional properties to the food matrices containing them. Some are mostly related to nonfood uses. Lactitol and tagatose are valuable low-calorie, noncariogenic sweeteners acceptable for lactose intolerants and diabetic persons, and the market has been developed based on that. Most important applications for lactobionic acid are related to nonfood uses in organ preservation and cosmetics, while tagatose is also used as cryoprotectant in organ preservation. Epilactose and fructosyl-galacto-oligosaccharides are emerging lactose-derived oligosaccharides whose technological potential needs to be assessed.