Study · Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.) · 2019Abstract only

Isomalto-oligosaccharides in juice blends and how they taste

What it found

Juice blends made with orange juice and malt extract and fermented with Weissella cibaria produced isomalto-oligosaccharides and scored around 6 out of 9 for acceptability in taste tests.

The authors call the blends a promising prebiotic drink.

What they found

Studies in people

Taste test scores

In sensory tests, the blends scored around 6 on a 9-point scale for acceptability, which was close to natural orange juice.

Other findings

Oligosaccharide yield

The best yield came after 24 hours, giving 19.4 g/L of oligosaccharides with a degree of polymerization of 3, starting from 36 g/L maltose and 19 g/L sucrose.

Different chain lengths

All the blends worked as good ways to make isomalto-oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerization.

Prebiotic drink potential

The authors say the juice blends with orange juice, malt extract and Weissella cibaria had good sensory results and could be a new prebiotic beverage.

What the authors conclude

“A prebiotic oligosaccharide beverage can be produced by enzymatic synthesis of oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerization.”
Rolim PM, Hu Y, Gänzle MG, 2019

Also in their conclusions

  • They say the juice blends containing orange juice and malt extract with Weissella cibaria to produce oligosaccharides showed good sensory indicators as an innovative prebiotic beverage.
  • They conclude that a prebiotic oligosaccharide beverage can be produced by enzymatic synthesis of oligosaccharides with different degrees of polymerization.

How it was done

The authors wanted to make isomalto-oligosaccharides in juice blends and check whether people would accept the taste.

They prepared different juice blends with varying amounts of orange juice, sucrose and malt extract, then fermented them using dextransucrase from Weissella cibaria 10 M. They measured oligosaccharide production over time and ran sensory tests comparing the blends with natural orange juice.

What it can’t tell you

  • We summarised it from the abstract only.
  • This study only looked at taste and how the oligosaccharides were made. It did not test any health effects in people.
  • The taste tests were small and do not show whether the drink would be accepted by a wider group of shoppers.

The paper

Title
Sensory analysis of juice blend containing isomalto-oligosaccharides produced by fermentation with Weissella cibaria
Type
Study
Evidence
Studies in people
Summarised from
Abstract only
Cite
Rolim PM, Hu Y, Gänzle MG (2019). Sensory analysis of juice blend containing isomalto-oligosaccharides produced by fermentation with Weissella cibaria. Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.). doi:10.1016/j.foodres.2018.08.089PubMed 31466654DOI

Summary written 26 Sep 2026. Check it against the paper before it changes what you eat. How we summarise papers · Report an error