From reactivity to proactivity: Clasado sees “seismic shifts” in prebiotic usage for gut and immune health

16 Feb 2021 --- UK-based prebiotics specialist Clasado Biosciences sees an exciting and lucrative future for the prebiotics market, as advances in technology, consumer education and scientific research are gaining ground in this space. 

Over the past year, the company has tracked a number of “seismic shifts” in gut health, which it says are set to shake up the nutrition industry in 2021.

Per Rehné, CEO at Clasado Biosciences, explains to NutritionInsight that the COVID-19 pandemic has created a unique level of consumer awareness for prebiotics. 

“The public is becoming much more engaged with overall physical and mental well-being, and while this upward shift began before the pandemic, it has certainly accelerated it. In essence, we are making the much-needed jump from reactivity to proactivity.”

Gut health has gathered momentum during the pandemic, explains Rehné, which is increasingly being appreciated as a distinct category. 

“Naturally, as the consumer learns more about digestive health, the role of ‘good’ gut bacteria sits at the center of this discussion. We also cannot overlook the renewed interest in immune health. The ongoing pandemic has brought fresh attention to immunity.” 

“Consumers are learning more about the interplay between gut health and immune health, with particular focus on how ‘good’ gut bacteria are linked to immunity.”

Innova Market Insights listed “In Tune With Immune” as one of its top trends for 2021. 

According to Innova’s Consumer Survey 2020, six out of ten global consumers are increasingly looking for food and beverage products that support their immune health, with one in three saying that concerns about immune health increased in 2020 over 2019.

New technologies are opening paths for personalized tracing of the gut microbiome.Functional foods ready to embrace prebiotics
Functional foods are a major market category set to incorporate prebiotics in the future, says Rehné. 

Industry stakeholders must take predicting how and where they are incorporated into their own hands, he asserts – something that will bring “abundant commercial opportunities.”

“Categories such as beverages and snacks hold a great deal of potential, as well as breakfast products and dairy foods,” he notes. 

“Due to the processes involved in their development and manufacture, it is generally very straightforward to include a prebiotic ingredient in these categories.”

“Moreover, it is possible to add greater nutritional profiles to products that the consumer already purchased regularly.”

Different prebiotic types have varying degrees of stability in terms of heat and pH, which influences the “ideal choice” for any particular product, Rehné continues. Prebiotic producers like Clasado now face this challenge of creating appropriate choices for different foods. 

Clasado’s flagship product Bimuno represents an effort in this direction. As a galactooligosaccharide prebiotic ingredient, it is “the most stable and can therefore be used in the widest array of functional food and supplement applications,” asserts Rehné. 

Technological advancesCombining prebiotics and probiotics is a key trend for scientific investigation, says Clasado.
Breakthroughs in technology go hand-in-hand with ingredient development and scientific discoveries. New extraction techniques for prebiotics – particularly for drawing novel oligosaccharides from plants and plant by-products – are showing promising signs for new production processes in future, continues Rehné. 

“We are also seeing a marked increase in wearable technology and apps that cater to digestive health. One particular innovation is a breath test device that can measure the gas we exhale and give an indication as to how we digest different carbohydrates in our foods.”

Moreover, advances in fecal and gut microbiome sampling are on the rise, offering more opportunity for consumers to pinpoint which areas of their personal diet can benefit from intervention. 

Lallemand Health Solutions recently began trialing a new ingestible capsule that would capture and measure samples of the human gut microbiome. 

Creating synbiotics 
Innova Market Insights last year found that blending prebiotics with probiotics “in a harmonious way” held a key to future industry trends in the gut and immune heath arenas. 

Rehné echoes this finding, saying that the “crucial criterion” for success in synbiotics is gathering sufficient scientific data to support the benefits of combining ingredients. 

“Trust is essential across all aspects of health and well-being, but the consumer that may be interested in the synbiotic category in the first instance is even more likely to be looking for strong scientific evidence,” he says. 

“Another key factor for developers, particularly as we look toward more innovative methods of delivery, is the dosage. Brands must consider the dosage level required to meet the aforementioned scientific substantiation.”

Synbiotics are already gaining “real traction” in health and nutrition markets, continues Rehné.

“With such a new category, it’s an ideal opportunity for brands to innovate and pioneer synbiotics and take advantage of the momentum behind prebiotics.”

By Louis Gore-Langton