According to experts, the beta-glucan market is predicted to overtake omega-3 as one of the most popular ingredients in the market in the coming years.

Experts from the International Association for Glucan Research, say that beta-glucan has attracted increasing attention as an immunomodulator, and the latest research has shown that beta-glucan can support a range of health claims from boosting immunity, lowering cholesterol, promoting wound healing, protecting bone marrow, and more.

Beta-glucan boosts immunity

Experts point out that the nutritional community is currently focused on omega-3s, probiotics and proteins. But in the next few years, beta-glucan will be even hotter than omega-3, and that’s because beta-glucan has a huge role to play in boosting immunity.

The beta-glucan market is currently investing a lot of money in sports research. The Texas Marathon study showed a 40% reduction in the incidence of upper respiratory illnesses (often referred to as colds) in marathon participants using beta-glucan compared to a control group.”

Upon beta-glucan binding, cells react by producing various molecules that subsequently stimulate other cell types. This is why the role of beta-glucan is so broad, as it affects numerous cell types involved in immune and other responses.

For a long time, it was thought that beta-glucan only affected the immune response of cell types. However, later studies have clearly shown that beta-glucan also stimulates antibody responses, meaning that it has a direct effect on the humoral branch of the immune response as well. Based on these studies, beta-glucan is now being intensively investigated as a potential vaccine.” The expert in question explained.

Meanwhile, beta-glucan has also been linked to the booming prebiotics and dietary fiber market. beta-glucan, which in combination with vitamin C enhances the microbiome in the gastrointestinal tract, is currently being studied for its effects on the body’s immune function, and the beta-glucan space will continue to grow as the nutrition industry takes note of this niche.

A Natural Health Ingredient

Back on December 19, 2014, the National Health and Family Planning Commission (now the Health and Welfare Commission) issued the Announcement on Approval of 9 New Food Ingredients, Including Tomato Seed Oil (No. 20 of 2014), officially approving oat beta-glucan as a new food ingredient.

Oat bran is a by-product of oat processing, and β-glucan is the main dietary fiber in oat bran with important physiological functions.

β-glucan exists in the cell wall of oat milk embryo and dextrin layer, and is abundantly enriched in the sub-dextrin layer of the seed kernel, which is mainly a non-digestible β-D-glucan formed by many monosaccharides connected through β-(1,3) and β-(1,4) glycosidic Jian, and this special structure also makes oat glucan have special physiological functions.

Consciously increasing the intake of oat β-glucan is the first choice of precise nutritional supplementation to improve one’s immune defense ability during the season of high bacterial and viral incidence!

Applications in the food industry

Applications in Pasta Products

The addition of oat bran flour not only enriches the nutritional composition of bread, but also improves the kneading resistance of the dough, and the unique water-holding properties of oat β-glucan prolongs the freshness of bread.

Studies have shown that when the oat dietary fiber addition is 6%, the sensory properties and various indexes of the cake are most ideal. Zhai Aihua et al. in the development of oat nutritious bread found that when oat flour add 15%, emulsifier add 1.0%, oxidizer add 0.3%, the protein content of the oat nutritious bread is 1.57 times that of ordinary bread, and the dietary fiber content is 9.64 times that of ordinary bread.

Application in meat products

Improvement of water holding and oil holding properties, improvement of sensory flavor

Dong Jilin et al. added oat gum (oat β-glucan) to minced meat and found that the water holding and oil holding properties of minced meat were improved to a certain extent, in addition, the sensory properties of minced meat were also improved, with good flavor, tenderness, juiciness and elasticity. The optimal ratio was 3:7 for fat and lean meat, 2.5g of oat glue, 2.5g of starch and 2.0g of carrageenan.

Du Yajun learned that the honeycomb appearance of oat β-glucan is the main reason for its good adsorption, water retention and oil retention. When added to meat products, the unique reticular structure plays a supportive role for the meat tissues and reduces its water dissipation during processing.

In addition, oat β-glucan also has the taste of fat, can be added to meat products as a fat substitute, such as added to sausage, not only can reduce the proportion of fat added, but also reduce the use of starch, so that sausage has a better flavor and texture.

Application in dairy products

Thickening, viscosity, stabilization in acidic environment, improve the sensory properties of the product.

Liang Ying et al. added oat β-glucan to yogurt for testing and found that the added oat β-glucan yogurt has smooth texture, delicate taste and rich milk flavor, with good sensory characteristics. Oat β-glucan is a kind of viscous polysaccharide, therefore, adding it to yogurt increases its viscosity and has a thickening effect.

Yogurt contains a large number of probiotics that are beneficial to intestinal health, and the overall environment is acidic, but oat β-glucan is stable in yogurt, with little change in water-holding capacity and viscosity over the shelf-life of the content .

Oat β-glucan can also be used as a fermentation substrate for probiotics such as bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. Jia Jianbo used oats and skimmed milk powder as the main raw materials to make oat biological milk containing active ingredients with health care functions, and the content of oat β-glucan in the product was 180mg/L, and the number of live bacteria was 10^11/mI.

Other applications

Oat β-glucan is also widely used in other areas of the food industry, such as oat fiber chewable tablets, oat cakes, oat lactone tofu, matsutake oat nutritious meal, oat vinegar, oat preserved meat with composite fruits and vegetables, oat instant noodles, oat cheese, oatmeal porridge, and oat nutritious health care wine and so on.

Besides, oat β-glucan is also applied to cosmetics, health products and medicine, etc., which has a huge development space.