Novel Food Application Made for Isomalto-Oligosaccharide

Bioneutra’s IMO (syrup and powder) is composed of smaller saccharides of fewer than three glucose units (15-20%), oligosaccharides of three to six degrees of polymerisation (70-80%) and larger oligomers of seven to nine glucose units (10%).

22/01/09 A Canadian company has applied to the UK Food Standards Agency for approval to market its isomalto-oligosaccharide (IMO) as a novel food ingredient. A novel food is a food or food ingredient that does not have a significant history of consumption within the European Union before 15 May 1997.

IMO is a mixture of glucose oligomers with α-(1-6) linkages such as isomaltose, panose, isomaltotriose, isomaltopentose and higher branched oliogsaccharides. Bioneutra’s IMO (syrup and powder) is composed of smaller saccharides of fewer than three glucose units (15-20%), oligosaccharides of three to six degrees of polymerisation (70-80%) and larger oligomers of seven to nine glucose units (10%).

Bioneutra Inc. intends to incorporate IMO (powder and syrup forms) as a nutritive sweetener and prebiotic in beverages, cereal products and sugar confectionary as well as nutritionally complete and fortified meal replacement bars and meals.

Before any new food product can be introduced on the European market, it must be rigorously assessed for safety. In the UK, the assessment of novel foods is carried out by an independent committee of scientists appointed by the Food Standards Agency, the Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (ACNFP).

Any comments on this application should be sent to the ACNFP Secretariat by Tuesday 10 February 2009 and will be passed to the Committee when it begins its assessment of this novel food ingredient.

According to Bioneutra’s application, IMO have been produced in Asia for the past 15-20 years and are used in a variety of food applications. Most of the current use of IMO as a health food ingredient is in Asian countries, like Japan, China & Korea. According to Teruo (2003), the use of IMO is more prevalent in Japan than any other non-digestible oligosaccharide. In 2003, IMO demand in Japan was estimated about 11,000 tons. IMO has been used as a sweetener in Japan for many years. IMO syrup is effectively used for traditional fermented foods in Japan (Teruo 2003).

In Japan, China, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan, IMO has been recognized by regulatory agencies, and this food ingredient (IMO) is in market for many decades. Currently, IMO is being consumed by local populations in those countries by adding this product into a number of functional foods to exhibit health benefits, like prebiotic functions & overall improvement of digestive health.

The general manufacturing process for IMO described herein has already been in use by many companies in Japan and China. The precise control of enzymatic reactions to yield the desired degree of polymerization (DP), thus enhancing the quality of the product, is patent of BioNeutra, but the use of Starch as a raw material and use of α-amylases for breaking down the starch polysaccharides with subsequent use of Glucosidase enzyme to changeover the linkage is already been in practice for long time.