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Galacto-Oligosaccharides and Other Products Derived from Lactose

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Advanced Dairy Chemistry

Abstract

Lactose is the most prevalent component in milk and is present as an energy source for the newly born offspring. It has always been considered to be the poor cousin to the milk fat and protein fractions in milk with respect to its value as a dairy ingredient, and considerable research has been undertaken around how excess lactose in the dairy processing industry can be valorised. As a disaccharide composed of the monosaccharides glucose and galactose, lactose can provide the backbone building block for numerous sugar-derived synthetic compounds that are becoming increasingly significant in our food and health industries. The six lactose derivatives discussed in this chapter include galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS), lactulose, lactosucrose, lactitol, lactobionic acid, and tagatose. These compounds are only observed in trace amounts in natural cow’s milk, if present at all, but all can be produced either chemically or enzymatically.

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Correspondence to D. E. Otter .

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Otter, D.E., Wu, S., Jayasinghe, D.N.D.S. (2022). Galacto-Oligosaccharides and Other Products Derived from Lactose. In: McSweeney, P.L.H., O'Mahony, J.A., Kelly, A.L. (eds) Advanced Dairy Chemistry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-92585-7_5

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