Safety evaluation of fructooligosaccharide (FOSSENCETM): Acute, 14-day, and subchronic oral toxicity study in Wistar rats

Fructooligosaccharide (FOS) has been used in infant formula and conventional foods as prebiotics. Short chain FOS (FOSSENCETM) is produced by a patented process of biotransformation of sucrose by the action of enzyme from live microbial cells, hence toxicology studies were initiated to assess its safety. The objective of the present study was to determine safety of FOSSENCETM in acute, 14-day, and subchronic (90-day) toxicity studies. In acute and 14-day studies, administration of the FOSSENCETM to Wistar rats did not cause any mortality or clinical signs and changes in body weights, feed consumption, and gross pathology at the doses of 2000, 5000, and 9000 mg/kg body weight. In the subchronic (90-day) toxicity study, FOSSENCETM was administered by oral gavage to Wistar rats at the doses of 0, 2000, 5000, and 9000 mg/kg/day for 90 days. No treatment-related clinical signs or mortalities were observed. Similarly, no treatment-related toxicologically or biologically significant changes in body weight, feed consumption, ophthalmological findings, neurological effects, hematology, clinical chemistry, urinalysis, and gross pathological findings were noticed. However, statistically significant increase in weight of cecum (without correlative microscopic change) was noted at all the test item-treated groups in males and females and was considered to be a trophic effect and not a toxic effect in rats.