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Review
. 2016 Sep 8;8(9):553.
doi: 10.3390/nu8090553.

Polydextrose: Physiological Function, and Effects on Health

Mariane Moreira Ramiro do Carmo  1 , Julia Clara Leite Walker  2 , Daiana Novello  3 , Valeria Maria Caselato  4 , Valdemiro Carlos Sgarbieri  5 , Arthur C Ouwehand  6 , Nelson Adami Andreollo  7 , Priscila Aiko Hiane  8 , Elisvânia Freitas Dos Santos  9
Affiliations
Review

Polydextrose: Physiological Function, and Effects on Health

Mariane Moreira Ramiro do Carmo et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Polydextrose (PDX) is a non-digestible oligosaccharide used widely across most sectors of the food industry. It is a randomly linked glucose oligomer containing small amounts of sorbitol and citric acid. The random bonds in PDX prevent mammalian digestive enzymes from readily hydrolyzing the molecule and it has a reported energy value of 1 kcal/g. These properties have led to the acceptance in many countries that PDX provides similar physiological effects as other dietary fibers and has shown prebiotic potential. Dietary intervention with prebiotics has been shown to selectively stimulate the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of intestinal bacteria associated with several physiological benefits on health. Therefore, the objective of this review was a survey of the literature on the effect of supplementation with PDX in health, and to list the benefits for maintaining health and/or reducing the development of diseases.

Keywords: fiber; functional foods; health; polydextrose; prebiotics.

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Conflict of interest statement

ACO is an employee of DuPont; Dupont manufactures and markets polydextrose. The other authors declare no conflict of interest.

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