Why is Chicory the Best Source of Inulin?
All inulin is not the same. Inulin is composed of a mixture of oligomers and polymers of different degree of polymerisation. What this means is that the composition of inulin in terms of chain length depends on its source. Chicory root inulin has a relatively longer chain than other types or sources of inulin. This provides several advantages over inulin with shorter chain lengths. As an example, fat can be replaced with chicory root inulin, but not with other types or sources of inulin, due to the longer chain length of chicory root inulin. Due to the chain length, and consistent composition, the chicory root inulin consistently maintains constant nutritional properties. Further to its compositional advantages, the chicory root physically resembles sugar beet. Since equipment already exists to process the sugar beet, adapting this equipment to process the chicory root is straight forward. Rather then re-inventing the wheel to extract inulin from other sources, the extraction process r
