International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD) Volume 5 Issue 3, March-April 2021 Available Online: www.ijtsrd.com e-ISSN: 2456 – 6470 @ IJTSRD | Unique Paper ID – IJTSRD38768 | Volume – 5 | Issue – 3 | March-April 2021 Page 742 Inulin a Crucial Component in Food Industry: A Review Zahara Ali Shams, Nikita Wadhawan Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India ABSTRACT Principally as a storage polysaccharide, inulin is widely distributed in plants and vegetables. It has been proven as a vital prebiotic which is available in more than 30,000 plant species on planet. The fermentation of inulin in large intestine result in the growth and improved metabolism of microbiota. Besides, its nutritional and therapeutic ability it imparts various techno- functional and physical properties in food processing industry. In addition, it does evidently instigate techno-functional and physical characteristics in food processing industry. Both long chain and short chain inulin are broadly used as fat replacer, foam foaming agent, sugar replacer and texture modifier. As a polysaccharide it improves the mouth feel property of processed food. It can be an important functional ingredient in processed industry This review article endeavours to explore various investigations done to employ techno- functional properties of inulin to present an extensive recapitulation of related researches in past 10 years. KEYWORDS: polysaccharide, inulin, nutritional and therapeutic ability How to cite this paper: Zahara Ali Shams | Nikita Wadhawan "Inulin a Crucial Component in Food Industry: A Review" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-5 | Issue-3, April 2021, pp.742- 745, URL: www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd38768.pdf Copyright © 2021 by author (s) and International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development Journal. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) INTRODUCTION Inulin is a fructan with a degree of polymerization of 2 to 60 which resists the hydrolysis by human alimentary enzymes. when reaching the colon, inulin is almost quantitatively fermented almost exclusively by colonies bifidobacteria and bacteroides. Such an extensive fermentation causes an increase in faecal bacterial biomass, a decrease in ceco-colonic pH. and produces a large amount of fermentation products among which the short chain fatty acids that exert systemic effects on lipid metabolism (Roberfroid, 1993). In 1800, inulin was first identified and isolated by Rose and defined as a carbohydrate substance. Today, mainly chicory (Cichorium intybus) root extracted inulin is used as a commercialized purified functional ingredient. The fat-replacing potential of inulin was discovered and patented by Orafti in 1992. Using a specific processing technique, inulin is combined with water to produce the same texture and mouth feel as fat. This is possible only in water-based foods such as dairy products and table spreads, and not in dry foods such as most snacks, bakery and confectionery products (Coussement, 1999). Food industry: Application as a fat replacer Singh and Singh stated FOSs with inulin can be used in ice creams to replace all the sugar and reduce the fat content, and it also gives excellent mouthfeel characteristics (2010). Rodríguez-García et al (2012), developed sponge cake containing 70% less oil replaced by inulin. The final product was found to be acceptable and softer. Oil substitution for inulin decreased significantly (P < 0.05) batter viscosity, giving heterogeneous bubbles size distributions as it was observed by light microscopy. Poursharif et al. (2012) developed low fat wheyless cream cheese containing inulin as a fat replacer. No significant difference was observed in the pH and the salt content between the full fat and low fat cheese. The moisture content of the low fat cheese was found more as compared to the full fat cheese. The study concluded that 10% inulin was enough to obtain low -fat cream cheese with the chemical attributes near to high- fat cream cheese, without inulin. Sołowiej et al (2015), studied the effect of inulin as a fat replacer on the physicochemical and microstructure of acid casein processed cheese analogues. The study suggested that with the partial replacement of milk fat with inulin increased the melt ability, density and cohesiveness and viscosity whereas did not influence their water activity but modified the colour. Pintor et al (2014) carried out a research work intended to reduce the fat content of the ice cream formula by replacing fat with inulin. It was possible to reduce up to 25% of butyric and vegetable fats with 3% of inulin, with good textural and sensory characteristics of the final product. The addition of inulin improves the viscosity, air incorporation and soft texture of the ice-cream mix. The sensory and physical properties of the final product was at par. Laguna et al (2014) investigated the texture and sensory properties of biscuits with 15-30 g/ 100 g fat has been substituted with inulin and hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (carbohydrate based fat replacer). The result showed that fat replacement up to 15 g/100 g produced acceptable product, IJTSRD38768