Abstract

The concept of prebiotics was first introduced in 1995 by Gibson and Roberfroid as an alternative approach for gut microbiota modulation. One aspect was that it would overcome survivability issues of probiotics during storage and gastrointestinal passage and allow beneficial changes within indigenous populations. Current prebiotics act at the genus rather than species level. Prebiotics were defined “as non digestible dietary ingredients that beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth and/or activity of one or a limited number of bacteria in the colon, thus improving host health [1].”