Other researchers have been more specific, and have proposed that "a prebiotic is a carbohydrate that results in changes in the numbers of key bacterial genera in the colon, i.e. bifidobacteria, bacteroides, lactobacilli and clostridia". Essentially, prebiotics are carbohydrates that are not digested and absorbed by the host, and which therefore reach the large intestine where they are utilised by beneficial bacteria. Prebiotics can even be co-administered with beneficial bacteria (which are referred to as 'probiotics') so as to achieve added health benefits. The combination of prebiotics with beneficial bacteria (probiotics) is referred to as synbiotics. The benefits associated with probiotics and prebiotics are strain- and compound-specific, respectively, and efficacy needs to be proven for the specific dose combination present in the material consumed.
An FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Technical Meeting in 2007 reviewed prebiotics and the various definitions of the term. The FAO found the past definitions of prebiotics to be restrictive in their applicability for target sites outside the gastrointestinal tract, and considered that the definitions also necessitated a single mechanism of action activity in the gastrointestinal microbiota. Consequently, FAO defined a 'prebiotic' as "a non-viable food component that confers a health benefit on the host associated with modulation of the microbiota." The meanings of the terms used in this definition were specified as follows:
The component to which the claim of prebiotic status is attributed must be characterised in terms of:
In addition, and at a minimum, there is a requirement for evidence of a correlation between the measurable physiological outcomes and modulation of the micro-biota at a specific site such as the gastrointestinal tract or the skin. Prebiotics are considered to be part of the broader 'functional food' group. Functional foods are foods that provide health benefits beyond basic nutrition. Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) describes functional foods as being "similar in appearance to conventional foods and intended to be consumed as part of a normal diet, but modified to serve physiological roles beyond the provision of simple nutrient requirements."
Prebiotics are also part of a new category of foods called 'novel foods'. In Australia, FSANZ has defined novel foods as foods that "are non-traditional foods with characteristics that require an assessment of public health and safety considerations." Novel foods have the characteristic of a degree of uncertainty of the food safety of the food. For this reason all novel foods in Australia are assessed rigorously before being allowed to be sold in Australia and New Zealand.
Australia and New Zealand are currently preparing a new food standard which will allow health claims to be made for functional foods. A health claim can refer to the presence of a nutrient or substance in a food and to its effect on a health function. Manufacturers of such foods must use either the FSANZ Model List of pre-approved statements, provide suitable scientific texts or dietary guidelines to support their claim(s), or must hold scientific evidence to substantiate such claims and produce this evidence, on request, for enforcement agencies. Health claims are potentially powerful tools for marketing functional foods since a health claim will help to explain to the consumer the health benefit of the food ingredient.
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