Genotoxic potential of cellobiose.

Cellobiose is a naturally occurring only slightly sweet disaccharide that may be used as a novel food ingredient. As part of the safety evaluation of cellobiose, produced from sucrose by an enzymatic process, an Ames test and an in-vitro micronucleus test with human peripheral lymphocytes were performed according to the respective OECD Guidelines. The results demonstrate that cellobiose lacks a genotoxic potential under the conditions of these standardized assays.