Galactooligosaccharides: Physiological benefits, production strategies, and industrial application

The concern for better life quality has been encouraging the bioprocess industries to develop technological strategies to obtain new biomolecules. Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) are an important class of food-grade oli-gosaccharides, being classified as non-digestible, and which present prebiotic potential, promoting better con-ditions of health and well-being. The main benefits include the selective stimulation of beneficial microorganisms, the decrease in the formation of toxic compounds, the increase in the absorption of minerals, improvement of an immune response, and a reduction in the severity of obesity and diabetes. This review ap-proaches the recent methodologies and strategies to obtain GOS, their health benefits, purification, and tech-nological properties for industrial application. Improvements in the process are continuously being investigated, with the technique of enzyme immobilization representing a potentially promising strategy. Sustainable GOS productions have been reported by the use of agro-industrial residues, such as cheese whey. Despite these ad-vances, the main concern of the process consists in the low yield, which implies high investments in the puri-fication of the bioproducts. Technological and nutritional approaches to the GOS application in different industrial sectors are also reported.

Automated summary

The bioprocess industries are developing technological strategies to obtain new biomolecules to improve life quality. Galactooligosaccharides (GOS) are important food-grade oligosaccharides with prebiotic potential, providing various health benefits such as selective stimulation of microorganisms, decrease in toxic compounds, increased mineral absorption, improved immune response, and reduced severity of obesity and diabetes. This review discusses recent methodologies and strategies to obtain GOS, purification methods, technological properties for industrial application, and the use of agro-industrial residues for sustainable GOS production. The low yield of GOS remains a primary concern, but enzyme immobilization shows promise as a potential solution. Technological and nutritional approaches for GOS application in different industries are also presented.