Inulin (Chicory Root)

Inulin is the storage carbohydrate of chicory, and the Food Chemicals Codex describes it plainly: a white powder, an indigestible plant fructan found in members of the Compositae family, produced commercially by extraction from the roots of Cichorium intybus L. Structurally it is a mixture of polymers of beta-2,1-linked fructose residues mostly capped by a terminal glucose residue, with the degree of polymerisation running from 3 to 60 and the longer chains predominating. Manufacture is straightforward and solvent-free: the sliced roots are extracted by hot-water diffusion, the extract is purified and the product is spray dried. CAS 9005-80-5. No INS number or E number has ever been assigned to it. Because of the beta-2,1 linkage, human digestive enzymes cannot hydrolyse inulin, and it passes to the colon intact as a fermentable substrate. FDA's June 2018 guidance added inulin and inulin-type fructans to the isolated and synthetic non-digestible carbohydrates that may be declared as dietary fibre on US Nutrition and Supplement Facts labels, which is the single fact most buyers are checking before they specify it. It contributes roughly 25-35% of the food energy of a digestible carbohydrate. Technologically it earns its place twice over: it is very soluble in hot water and only slightly soluble in cold, and the long-chain fraction sets into a white creamy gel that behaves like fat, which is why it turns up in reduced-fat dairy, spreads and bakery as much as in fibre fortification. Native grade carries 6-10% free glucose, fructose and sucrose left from extraction; long-chain HP grades are made by physically removing the DP 10-and-under fraction, and the sweeter oligofructose fraction is that removed portion sold in its own right. The allergen and origin picture is clean and commercially useful. Inulin is vegan and vegetarian, wholly plant-derived, with no bovine, porcine or marine input anywhere in the process, and it is not made from a bioengineered crop. Manufacturers' declarations confirm it free from milk, egg, fish, crustacean, mollusc, soybean, wheat and gluten-containing grains, peanut, tree nut, sesame, celery, mustard, lupin and sulphites. The one point a brand should note on its own label is botanical rather than regulatory: chicory sits in the Asteraceae (Compositae) family, which matters to end users who avoid that family. Chicory inulin is GRAS in the United States, FDA having issued a no-questions letter on GRN 118. Every lot ships with a CoA covering inulin content by HPAEC-PAD, free sugars, moisture, ash, heavy metals and microbiology.