Unlocking the potential of vegetable by-products as a novel source of prebiotics

Due to a lack of effective utilisation strategies, vegetable by-products (VBP) are often discarded in landfills as waste. However, VBP is an underutilised source of bioactive compounds with potential prebiotic properties and can be considered a valuable prebiotic resource. Therefore, determining the potential prebiotic effects of VPB is important. This review summarises the current research progress on the development of VBP as prebiotics and the experimental models used for screening prebiotics. In vitro and in vivo animal studies show that VBP is a promising source of prebiotics that can be selectively utilised by gut microbiota. However, reported effects vary considerably due to differences in the type of VBP, processing methods, and experimental models. Therefore, more standardised methods, multi-omics techniques, and well-designed clinical studies are needed to further determine the prebiotic effects of VBP, thereby supporting the transformation of VBP into promising prebiotics with significant health benefits and promoting food system sustainability.