ICAR Research Data Repository for Knowledge Management

Food products are designed for taste, appearance, cost and convenience of the consumer. The design of food products that confer a health benefit is a relatively new trend, and recognizes the growing acceptance of the role of diet in
disease prevention, treatment and well being. This change in attitude for product design and development has forced organizations and industries involved in formulating foods for health benefit into new areas of understanding. The concept of formulating foods for health benefits is a trend that is quickly becoming popular.A significant driving force in the ‘functional food’ market place is consumer demand-the quest by consumers to optimize their health through food.It is becoming increasingly clear that there is a strong relationship between the food we eat and our health. Scientific knowledge of the beneficial role of various food ingredients (nutrients) for the prevention of specific diseases is rapidly accumulating. Functional foods, designer foods, pharma foods and nutraceuticals
are synonyms for foods that can prevent and treat diseases. Generally, a functional food can be defined as ‘any food that has a positive impact on an individual’s health, physical performance or state of mind in addition to its nutritional content’. Functional foods in addition to their basic nutritional content and natural being, will
contain the proper balance of ingredients which will help to improve many aspects of human lives, including the prevention and treatment of illness and disease. So far, a large number of functional foods in various forms have already been introduced into the market. Many of them contain a number of characteristic functional ingredients. They include dietary fiber, oligosaccharides, sugar alcohols,peptides and proteins, prebiotics and probiotics, phytochemicals and antioxidants and polyunsaturated fatty acids. Substances, which can lead to the production of functional foods, can be classified as (i) an essential micronutrient having specific physiological effects, such as
resistant starch or omega – 3 – fatty acids (ii) an essential micronutrient, if it confers a special benefit through the intake over and above recommended daily intake (RDI) (iii) a non (essential) – nutrient giving specific physiological effects, such as some oligosaccharides and phytochemical.Oligosaccharides are very well recognized as ‘functional food ingredients’ because of their positive effects on human health. This research work focuses on the
microbial production of Fructosyl Transferase (FTase) and the production of Fructooligosaccharides (FOS) by transfrucosylation using this enzyme.