Table 1.

Properties of an ideal prebiotic (Swennen et al. 2006)

Desirable attributes	Properties of oligosaccharides
Active at low dosage	Selectively and efficiently metabolized by Bifidobacterium and / or Lactobacillus sp.
Lack of side effects	Selectively and efficiently metabolized by beneficial bacteria without producing gas.
Persistence through the colon	Preferably high molecular weight
Varying viscosity	Available in different molecular weights and linkages
Acceptable storage and processing stability	Possess 1–6 linkages and pyranosyl sugar rings
Ability to control microflora modulation	Selectively metabolized by restricted microbial species.
Varying sweetness	Varying monosaccharide composition