Functional hydrocolloids, gut microbiota and health: picking food additives for personalized nutrition

ABSTRACT The human gut microbiota respond to particular food components, interact with intestinal mucosa and thereby contribute to health and disease. Key microbiome features are under comprehensive investigation and are likely to be developed as reliable evidence for clinical diagnosis. The underlying mechanisms provide the foundation for assembling bespoke nutritional ingredients, including functional food additives, that may lead to favorable outcomes in facilitating the amelioration of host dysfunction. Functional hydrocolloids serve as multiple food additives with promising application prospects and outstanding adjunctive beneficial characteristics. Therefore, in this review, we introduce the latest advances in the food additives–gut microbiota–host axis by summarizing the physiochemical and physiological properties of a collection of functional hydrocolloids from various sources, describing the functional hydrocolloids-related intestinal commensal markers and deciphering the underlying mechanisms of their beneficial effects, and propose the feasibilities and guidelines for further development of gut microbiota-oriented personalized nutrition.