The practice of application and features of the control of oligosaccharides in the production of specialized food products. A review

Functional oligosaccharides include various groups of carbohydrates with the biological activity — an ability to modulate gut microbiota due to the prebiotic, anti-adhesive and anti-inflammatory activities. The unique properties of oligosaccharides explain a wide spectrum of their use in the dairy industry: from food ingredients for imitation of the prebiotic activity of human milk oligosaccharides in infant dry milk mixtures to structuring additives, replacers of sugar and fat. When choosing oligosaccharides for inclusion into dairy products, their biological activity and technological properties that depend on a source and method for extraction of these compounds are assessed. Fructooligosaccharides, galactooligosaccharides, xylooligosaccharides and pectic oligosaccharides have been most widely used. When developing recipes of products with stated biological effectiveness, it is necessary to remember that consumption of large amounts of substances with prebiotic properties can lead to the gastrointestinal disorder, which requires introducing into practice the control of the oligosaccharide quantitative content in the product composition. The aim of this review is analysis of possibilities of using oligosaccharides in production of specialized milk-based food products and methods for controlling quality, safety and effectiveness of inclusion of such products into a diet. The review considers the existing methods for quantitative identification of oligosaccharides included in the composition of dairy products as functional ingredients. The emphasis is made on the limitations of the introduction of the developed analytical methods into routine practice of the oligosaccharide control, which is linked with the complexity and multicomponent nature of the food matrix under study. The necessity of the further improvement of methods for quantitative identification of functional oligosaccharides in foods is shown.