Production of fructo-oligosaccharide as valuable feed prebiotics from low-value molasses - A review

Sugarcane molasses is rich in sugars and widely used as a low-cost energy source for feeding animals in Australia. Meanwhile, the use of prebiotics as feed additives to improve animal health and meat quality has gained increasing interest worldwide. Oligosaccharides are the most studied prebiotics for food and feed applications and the health benefits of using many oligosaccharides have been well demonstrated, including improving gut health, mineral absorption and immunity. Fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are a type of oligosaccharides prebiotics and often produced from sucrose or sucrose-rich carbon sources, such as molasses. In this paper, FOS production from sucrose and molasses, as well as FOS application as feed additives are reviewed. In addition, the preliminary research achievements on FOS production from molasses at QUT are also introduced. Two novel Aureobasidium pullulans strains were identified for producing FOS enzymes and FOS production from both pure sucrose and molasses was tested. Currently, a new FOS production strategy is being developed with the aiming of improving FOS yield using molasses. It is expected that transformation of low-value molasses to high-value FOS feed additives can increase the revenue of the Australian sugarcane industry.