Functional F&B “still unexploited segment for probiotics,” flags industry panel

23 Jun 2021 --- With the rise of consumers turning toward food and beverages that can improve their holistic health and well-being, the functional foods category is taking off.

Within this category, probiotics represent an “unexploited segment” with more consumers focusing on improving their microbiome, says Margherita Patrucco, technical marketing manager of Probiotical. Moreover, consumers are addressing a range of health benefits with probiotics, from immune health to metabolic health. 

NutritionInsight speaks with key suppliers in the probiotics space, including Probiotical, Chr. Hansen, Lallemand Health Solutions and ADM. They highlight the burgeoning opportunities for health-driven bacteria, particularly in functional F&B. 

Reducing pill fatigue 
The rise of pill fatigue could be behind probiotics appearing in food. This can appeal to consumers looking for benefits for gut health, mood, immunity, vaginal health or the oral microbiome. 

One company enabling more probiotics in food and beverages is Chr. Hansen. The company recently launched Vega nu-trish blends of cultures.

This innovation allows brands to incorporate extensively researched probiotics, including Chr. Hansen’s Bifidobacterium, BB-12 and Lactobacillus rhamnosus, LGG, into plant-based yogurts. 

Both dairy and dairy-alternative bases can deliver health benefits through probiotics. “The plant-based food segment is a relatively new and growing segment where we believe we will see more probiotic solutions in the future,” says Dr. Ross Crittenden, Chr. Hansen’s senior director for commercial development.

“These cultures have been designed specifically for use in plant bases to ensure convenient delivery of the correct serving and stability of probiotics, all while delivering robust performance and clean flavor.”

Meanwhile, Patrucco at Probiotical notes that most of the requests the company receives for functional F&B containing probiotics are sports products, nutritional bars and special protein formulations. 

“However, the difficulty for this kind of product is technical-formulative, as it is challenging to develop a product whose manufacturing process doesn’t damage the viability of probiotics.” 

Notably, Innova Market Insights reports that launches of probiotics in the Sports Nutrition and Supplements category have decreased globally, featuring an 18 percent year-over-year decline when comparing 2020 and 2019 launches.

Heat-treated probiotics 
New processing techniques that allow the strains to stay effective in harsh conditions are helping probiotics gain more shelf space within foods and beverages. 

ADM’s heat-treated strains of probiotics, or “postbiotics,” HT-BPL1 and HT-ES1 can be used in food and beverage formats that require heat processing.

Postbiotics retain their efficacy through sterilization and pasteurization. “We believe that the advent of postbiotics will further enhance this push for innovation in products that modulate the microbiome – especially in food and beverages,” says Marta Tortajada Serra, vice president science and technology health and wellness at ADM.

“Many food and beverage categories will shift their functional offering based on the introduction of these products.” 

For example, postbiotics could open the door to formulate dairy products beyond yogurt since the pasteurization or sterilization process does not affect postbiotic functionality.

Tortajada Serra continues: “In fact, waters, nutrition bars, chewing gum and juices – essentially all food matrices – are likely to be suitable applications.”

Picking the right strain
As brands look to incorporate probiotics into either foods and beverages or supplements, the wide range of probiotic options can be overwhelming. 

Some products boast a multitude of gut-boosting strains, while others combine one or two. For Lallemand Health Solutions’ marketing director Bérengère Feuz: “Mixing many strains does not guarantee additional benefits or efficacy – more is not always better.”

“It is better to have carefully selected strains documented for their effectiveness to address certain health conditions.” 

Digestive/Liver health was the number one positioning for probiotics within Sports Nutrition and Supplements as of 2020.Feuz recommends focusing on the probiotics mode of action. “A deeper knowledge of the mechanism of action of each strain can help identify best candidates to target specific health benefits. 

A few ways to systematically screen for each strain include looking at their phenotype profile, whole-genome sequencing or adhesion to specific epithelial cells, she continues.

Chr. Hansen, ADM and Probiotical agree that science-based evidence is the best determiner for a strain’s suitability.

A multistrain formulation should be well-studied and balanced, Patrucco details, to find synergy between strains and avoid any possible antagonistic activity.

Going beyond gut health 
As research expands into new forms of probiotics, health positionings beyond gut health alone are emerging.

Innova Market Insights notes Digestive/Liver health remains the number one positioning for probiotics in Sports Nutrition and Supplements as of 2020. This is followed by Immune Health, Energy & Stamina, Brain/Mood Health and Women’s Health.

Within the Brain/Mood Health category, Lallemand Health Solutions’ Cerebiome, combining Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell-52 and Bifidobacterium longum Rosell-175, is backed by five clinical studies and nine preclinical studies in the brain-gut axis area.

“Cerebiome showed significant results on mental well-being and has approved health claims in Canada and Brazil on mood, feelings of anxiety and stress-related gastrointestinal discomfort,” says Feuz. 

Over the last months, successful production trials combined Cerebiome with Safr’inside, and encapsulated saffron extract. 

“The natural psychobiotic formula is positioned as a natural and effective supplement for stress-management via the gut-brain axis.” 

Addressing metabolic health through probiotics is an upcoming category to watch (Credit: Chr. Hansen).Lallemand also recently brought to market L. plantarum Rosella dedicated to women’s intimate health, but administered orally.

The oral route is advantageous as the ingredient can be mixed with other ingredients, namely cranberry extract. 

Emerging positionings 
As research advances in the flourishing field of probiotics, positionings that target even more specific health conditions are expected to emerge.

For example, ADM has demonstrated improvements in the gut microbiome can have a positive impact on skin conditions, explains Tortajada Serra, specifically for atopic dermatitis and psoriasis. 

Probiotics for metabolic conditions are also being studied. ADM’s latest HT-BPL1 postbiotic has been evaluated in human clinical trials for impact on fat mass deposition. 

Meanwhile, Patrucco reveals that Probiotical recently received the pre-print of a paper on a two-strain formulation that was found to be effective in improving glucose metabolism. In particular, the study examined insulin resistance, the reduction of diastolic blood pressure values and weight loss support in patients with obesity and insulin resistance.

By Missy Green