Development and Classification of Functional Carbohydrate Processing Enzymes in the Food Industry

In nowadays society, with the increasing requirements for nutrition, people pay more attention to the functionality of food. The latest trend in food industry is the development of functional foods such as prebiotics and low-calorie sweeteners. Enzymes have strength not only in catalytic efficiency but also in chemoselectivity, regioselectivity, and stereoselectivity, which makes enzymatic reactions more precise, efficient, and reproducible than chemical methods. Functional carbohydrates can be produced enzymatically through polymerization, isomerization, transglycosylation, or oxidation/reduction reactions. In this chapter, the development and classification of the functional carbohydrate processing enzymes are discussed.