Digestibility and fermentation of tuna products added inulin by colonic microflora

The development of functional tuna products (tuna in spring water and tuna salad cream) added 5% inulin were investigated. The aims of this study were to study the digestibility and in vitro fermentation by human fecal microbiota in three-stage continuous system. Both developed products showed prebiotic properties. They were resistant to artificial human saliva, partially resistant to acid conditions in the human stomach and resistant to human pancreatic ?-amylase. The three-stage continuous system showed increase in beneficial bacteria. Bacterial enumeration, using a fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique, showed significant increases (p < 0.05) in bifidobacteria and lactobacilli. In contrast, the levels of bacteroides and clostridia were reduced. The highest prebiotic index (PI) scores of tuna in spring water and tuna in salad cream were 1.82 and 0.93, respectively. Short chain fatty acids (SCFA) were significant increased (p < 0.05), such as acetic, propionic and particular butyric acid. Butyric acid increased approximately 3 and 4 fold for tuna in salad cream and tuna in spring water, respectively