Prebiotics are defined as non-digestible dietary ingredients that
beneficially affect the host by selectively stimulating the growth of and/
or activating the metabolism of health-promoting bacteria in the
gastrointestinal (GI) tract (Manning and Gibson, 2004). Compounds
which have been shown to have prebiotic characteristics include
mannanoligosaccharides (MOS), lactose, trans-galactooligosaccharide,
as well as oligofructose and inulin (Teitelbaum and Walker, 2002).