Carbon Dioxide as a Traceless Caramelization Promotor: Preparation of Prebiotic Difructose Dianhydrides (DFAs)-Enriched Caramels from d‑Fructose

Activation of a concentrated solution of d-fructose with carbonic acid, generated from carbon dioxide, induces the formation of difructose dianhydrides (DFAs) and their glycosylated derivatives (glycosyl-DFAs), a family of prebiotic oligosaccharides. Under optimized conditions, up to 70% of the active DFA species were obtained from a highly concentrated solution of fructose, avoiding the filtration step and contamination risk associated with the current procedures that employ heterogeneous catalysis with acid ion-exchange resins. The optimized CO2-promoted preparation of DFA-enriched caramel described here has been already successfully scaled up to 150 kg of d-fructose for nutritional studies, showing that implementation of this process is possible at a larger scale.