Comet Bio: Exploring Arrabina’s fiber credentials, flavor diversity & microbiome impact

Today’s consumers consistently seek foods and beverages that deliver not only great taste and texture but also functional benefits. According to Comet Bio, a food tech company specializing in producing prebiotic dietary fiber using proprietary upcycling technology, brands can strengthen and differentiate their product appeal by focusing on gut health claims. 

Promoting fiber is a prime opportunity, as it promotes digestive health and satiety, which is of high interest to consumers looking to manage their weight. Fiber’s functional benefits today extend far beyond interest in gut health, which has historically been a core focus. 

With emerging benefits across mental health — including anxiety, sleep, and cognitive function — as well as cardiac and bone health, and more established benefits in weight management, consumer motivations to consume specific fibers are increasing.

Nutrition Insight speaks with Hannah Ackermann, VP of marketing and nutrition affairs at Comet Bio, who says that since nearly 94% of Americans fail to meet daily fiber recommendations, any opportunity to incorporate more fiber into familiar products is a “meaningful win.”

The company’s flagship ingredient is Arrabina — a soluble arabinoxylan-based fiber extracted from agricultural byproducts such as wheat straw, corn stover, and brewer’s grains.

“Next-generation fibers like Arrabina are making innovation easier than ever,” notes Ackermann. “With full solubility, heat and acid stability, and a neutral flavor profile, Arrabina can be used in a wide range of applications. Consumers no longer associate fiber-rich products with gritty textures or ‘cardboard’ flavor. In fact, today’s functional fibers appear in trending, indulgent, better-for-you products such as SmartSweets and Popwell prebiotic soda.”

At IFT First 2025, we caught up with Comet Bio’s CEO, Loula Merkel, to discuss the company’s Arrabina L version for lighter applications.It is also worth noting that “not all prebiotic fibers are created equal,” she shares. “Many contain only a single type of dietary fiber, which limits the microbial communities they can nourish and the benefits they can unlock.”

“Arrabina, on the other hand, is gently extracted from wheat without the use of harsh chemicals or processing. This allows us to preserve the ingredient’s natural plant diversity, including soluble arabinoxylan, polyphenols, xylooligosaccharides, lignin, and beta-glucan. This diverse composition matters because it enables Arrabina to support a broader range of beneficial bacteria, rather than just one or two species.”

By fueling a wider range of microbes, Ackermann underscores that Arrabina drives the production of diverse short-chain fatty acids, which are key metabolites associated with several health benefits.

“Arrabina’s full solubility, neutral mouthfeel, and efficacy at low doses make it easy to formulate beverages without compromising texture or taste. Its low inclusion rates deliver powerful benefits, while its proven tolerability ensures consumers can enjoy gut health benefits without concerns about gastrointestinal (GI) distress.”

Tolerability is also a big differentiator for our prebiotic dietary fiber, flags Ackermann. Arrabina’s “outstanding tolerability makes it unique within the prebiotic market.”

Prebiotics play a pivotal role in the microbiome by supplying the crucial, non-digestible ingredients that fuel the growth of good bacteria, including probiotics. “Unfortunately, many popular prebiotics, such as inulin, can cause GI distress and bloat, making it difficult for consumers to incorporate them into their digestive health regimen. Arrabina provides a solution to this prebiotic problem.”

Gentle gut support 

A third-party clinical study showed that Arrabina is gentle on the gut even at 15 g per day, which would be about five servings.

“This is important because beverages supplemented with fiber often taste so good that consumers go over the recommended serving size. If a brand uses a fiber that has tolerability issues when more than one serving is consumed, customers may experience an adverse GI reaction and be less likely to repurchase the item,” highlights Ackermann. 

Ackermann says that Arrabina can survive shelf life limitations and manufacturing processes that involve high heat, high pressure, and acidic environments (Image credit: Comet Bio).“At Comet Bio, we are keen to provide third-party validation that demonstrates the quality and high tolerability of Arrabina as a nutritional ingredient. To that end, we have secured the FODMAP-friendly certification, verified by the measurably low FODMAP (fermentable oligo-, di-, monosaccharides and polyols) content in our patented prebiotic fiber.”

She notes that pH stability is also an issue for many prebiotic dietary fibers and beverages, because fiber can degrade in more acidic environments. The heat and pH stability of prebiotic dietary fibers also pose a problem during the pasteurization and retort stages of the beverage manufacturing process. Brands can mitigate this issue by overdosing on prebiotic dietary fiber in formulations, assuming that a certain percentage will degrade. Additional ingredient cost is one of the chief drawbacks of this practice.

Ackermann adds: “Arrabina prebiotic dietary fibers can survive shelf life limitations and the demanding beverage manufacturing processes that often involve high heat, high pressure, and acidic environments.”

Arrabina’s innate arabinoxylan structure provides clinically proven health benefits and formulation flexibility. Testing shows that Arrabina prebiotic dietary fiber can be added to any beverage’s existing manufacturing process without concern over the ingredient’s viability. The testing conditions mimicked the most common processing conditions associated with the manufacturing of functional F&B.

“Results show that the dietary fiber is heat-tolerant up to 135°C, typical of ultra-high temperature or alternative heat treatment processes commonly used to create ready-to-drink beverages. Additional testing shows that Arrabina remains stable in pH conditions as low as two, allowing it to be used in extremely acidic beverage formulations,” notes Ackermann. 

“This is important for our customers because they do not want to have to overdose a product with fiber to account for fiber breakdown, as this is wasteful. Customers also want to feel confident that the number of grams on the pack is really the number of grams of fiber in the product,” she concludes.