The invention relates to a product for use in the therapeutic or prophylactic treatment of infections, said treatment comprising oral administration of the product, wherein the product is selected from a nutritional formulation, a food product, a dietary supplement, a beverage and a pharmaceutical product, said product containing carrot RG-I polysaccharides having the following combination features: • a molecular weight in the range 10-300 kDa； • a backbone consisting of galacturonic acid residues and rhamnose residues, said rhamnose residues being contained in alpha(1→4)-galacturonic-alpha(1→2)-rhamnose residues； • the following monosaccharide composition: 20-60 mol.% galacturonic acid residues, wherein the individual galacturonic acids can be methylated and/or acetyl-esterified； 8-50 mol.% rhamnose residues； 0-40 mol.% arabinose residues； 0-40 mol.% galactose residues； molar ratio of galacturonic acid residues to rhamnose residues in the range of 5:1 to 1 :1； galacturonic acid residues, rhamnose residues, arabinose residues and galactose residues together constitute at least 85 mol.% of the monosaccharide residues in the carrot RG-I polysaccharides. These carrot RG-I polysaccharides can be produced by partially hydrolysing pectic polysaccharides present in a carrot pectin isolate. The effectiveness of carrot RG-I polysaccharides against infections is substantially improved by enzymatically hydrolysing the RG-I polysaccharides to remove at least part of the homogalacturonan component.
