**1. Introduction**

454 The Complex World of Polysaccharides

10.

of Food Science. Available:

Proc. Nutr. Soc. 60(4): 475-479.

e=1 Accessed 2012 Abril 10.

Accessed 2012 April 10.

Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 505 p.

(LAB). Crit. Rev. Food Sci. Nutr. 38: 113-126.

[75] Naidu A.S, Bidlack W.R, Clemens R.A (1999) Probiotic spectraof lactic acid bacteria

[76] Giancone T (2007) Hydrocolloid-based edible films: composition-structure-properties relationship. Thesis Doctoral. Universitá degli Studi di Napoli Federico II. Department

[77] Gontard N, Guilbert S (1999) Bio-packaging: technology and properties of edible and/or biodegradable material of agricultural origin. In: Mathlouthi M, editor. Food packaging and preservation. Chapter 9. Gaithersburg, USA: Aspen Publisher, Inc. pp. 159-181. [78] Pavlath A.E, Orts W (2009). Edible films and coatings: Why, what, and how?. In: Embuscado M.E, Huber K.C, editors. Edible films and coatings for food applications.

[79] Chien P.J, Sheu F, Yang F.H (2007) Effects of edible chitosan coating on quality and

[80] Parize A, Rozone T, Costa I Fávere V, Laranjeira M, Spinelli A, Longo E (2008) Microencapsulation of the natural urucum pigment with chitosan by spray-drying in

[81] Schrooyen P, Meer R, Kruif C (2001) Microencapsulation: its application in nutrition.

[82] Quispe-Arpasi D, Matos-Chamorro A, Quispe-Condori S (2011) Microencapsulación de aceites y su aplicación en la industria de alimentos. I Congreso Nacional de

http://papiros.upeu.edu.pe/bitstream/handle/123456789/180/CIn33Articulo.pdf?sequenc

[83] Smith J, Charter E (2010) Functional food product development. United Kingdom:

[84] Sanguansri L, Augustin M (2007) Microencapsulation and delivery of Omega-3 fatty acids. In: Shi J, editor. Functional food ingredients and nutraceuticals: Processing

[85] Ozer B, Avni H, Senel E, Atamer M, Hayaloglu A (2009) Improving the viability of Bifidobacterium bifidum BB-12 and Lactobacillus acidophilus LA-5 in white-brined

[86] Kailasapathy K, Madziva H, Anjani K, Seneweera S, Phillips M (2006) Recent trends in the role of micro encapsulation in the development of bio-functional foods. XIVth

http://impascience.eu/bioencapsulation/340\_contribution\_texts/2006-10-05\_O7-1.pdf.

[87] Gibbs B.F, Kermasha S, Alli I, Mulligan C.N (1999) Encapsulation in the food industry:

[88] Desobry S, Debeaufort F (2011) Encapsulation of flavors, nutraceuticals, and antibacterials. In: Baldwin E.A, Hagenmaier R, Bai J, editors. Edible coatings and films to improve food quality. 2nd Edition. Chapter 11. Boca Raton, USA: CRC Press. pp. 333-372.

International Workshop on Bioencapsulation, Lausanne, USA. Available:

Chapter 1. New York: Springer Science + Business Media, LLC. pp. 1-24.

shelf life of sliced mango fruit. J. Food Eng. 78: 225-229.

different solvents. African J. Biotechnol. 7(17): 3107-3114.

Investigación, Lima, Perú. November 2-4, 2011. Available:

technologies. Florida, USA: Taylor & Francis. pp. 297-327.

cheese by microencapsulation. Int. Dairy J. 19(1): 22-29.

A review. Int. J. Food Sci. Nutr. 50: 213-224.

http://www.fedoa.unina.it/1669/1/Giancone\_Scienze\_Tecnologie.pdf. Accessed 2012 Feb

Dietary fibers are consumed from cereals, fruit and vegetables, but now are also added in purified form to food preparations since the roles of dietary fibers in preventing and treating some diseases have been well documented. Dietary fiber intake in Western countries is currently estimated to be 16.3-43.4 g per person per day [1]. According to current recommendations (Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine, 2001), the average daily requirement of dietary fiber is 25 g per day for women younger than 50, 21 g per day for women older than 50; 38 g per day for men younger than 50, and 30 g per day for men older than 50 [2].

The addition of dietary fibers to foods confers three different types of benefits. Their nutritional value motivates consumers to eat increased quantities of dietary fibers, which is advised by nutritionists. Their technological properties are of great interest to food manufacturers. Finally, dietary fibers may also be used to upgrade agricultural products and by-products for use as food ingredients. Consequently, both the nutritional value and technological properties of dietary fibers are important in the potential development of a wide range of fiber-enriched foods for example: bakery products, snacks, sauces, drinks, cereals, cookies, dairy products, meat products [3].

Different types of dietary fibers have different structures and chemical compositions, and correspondingly are of varying nutritional and technological interest. Although many studies have confirmed the nutritional benefits of dietary fibers (preventing diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, various types of cancer, and improving immune functions), the results depend on the types of dietary fibers studied or on the experimental conditions used [3]. The intake of dietary fiber might influence in different ways the absorption of nutrients [4]. With respect to glucose, an increase in the total fiber content of food can delay the glycemic response

© 2012 Dello Staffolo et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. © 2012 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

[5]. However, there is fairly consistent evidence that soluble types of fiber reduce blood glucose and purified insoluble fibers have little or no effect on postprandial blood glucose [6]. In the other direction, dietary fiber has been shown to impair the absorption of minerals and trace elements in the small intestine because of their binding and/or sequestering effects [7]. This is associated with negative impacts on mineral bioavailability, particularly in high-risk population groups [8]. Glucose, calcium and iron have gained increasing interest in nutrition fields. Glucose is the key in carbohydrate and lipid metabolism influencing the management of body weight [9]. Calcium is involved in most metabolic processes and the phosphate salts of which provide mechanical rigidity to the bones and teeth. Intake of calcium is related to the prevention of osteoporosis [10,11]. Iron (Fe) deficiency is a leading nutritional concern worldwide, affecting 20–50% of the world's population [12].

There is an unequivocal need for predicting absorption of these nutrients. The aim of most of the investigations in this field is to make evident that fiber may be an important determinant of the utilisation of these nutrients in the diet. Much research has been done to better understand the physicochemical interactions between dietary fiber and these nutrients in the past decades [13-15]. Several of these investigations have applied in vitro digestive models to study their absorption in foods [16-18]. However, few works have been done to study their absorption from fermented milk products [19]. Yogurt is one of the dairy products, which should continue to increase in sales due to acceptance for the consumers and diversification in the range of yogurt-like products, including reduced fat content yogurts, yogurts with dietary fibers, probiotic yogurts, symbiotic yogurts, yogurt ice-cream, etc [20]. For a long time, yogurt has been recognised as a healthy food and as an important nutritional source [21].

The interactions between fibers added to yogurt from different sources (animal and plant fibers) and with different behaviors (soluble, insoluble and viscous fibers) and glucose, calcium and iron, have been studied using chemical experimental models of the human digestive tract to evaluate the availability of these nutrients.
