IFT 2018: Kerry on taking its immunity ingredients to the global market

25 Jul 2018 --- At this year’s annual IFT Food Expo (July 15-18) in Chicago, Kerry showcased its branded functional ingredients, GanedenBC30 and Wellmune. NutritionInsight spoke with Donald Cox, R&D Director at Kerry's Functional Ingredients and Actives business, about the future geographical expansion of the ingredients, facilitated through Kerry’s acquisition of Ganeden last year.

The probiotic market is experiencing a boom at the moment, with experts tipping the industry as capable of reaching a value of €53 billion by 2023. The global push for probiotics provides ample space for science-backed, probiotic ingredients.

Presenting an Innova Market Insights Digestive Health report at the show, NutritionInsight's Robin Wyers, says that, “There has been accelerating growth of new product launches tracked with digestive health claims, with a CAGR of +21 percent from 2012 to 2016.”

"There is a growing awareness around digestive health and one in four consumers indicate that it is an almost daily issue for them, leading to strong media attention on the topic,” he adds. 

“We acquired the GanedenBC30 business last year, and they are now part of the Kerry group. We are happy to have another science-backed, research-backed ingredient with clinical research behind it and a good safety profile and a good knowledge mechanistically of how it impacts the digestive system,” Cox tells NutritionInsight.

There have been changes at the Ganeden business since the Kerry acquisition, Cox explains, such as the use of Kerry's resources to take GanedenBC30 to the global market. “We are currently 90 percent in the US, but it is our ambition to make it more balanced.” What number would Kerry like to see in the future? Cox tentatively suggests a 50/50 balance as a future ideal.

“We are going to roll out GanedenBC30 in further geographies, which means doing clinical research in those geographies such as Asia, Europe and Latin America. Continuing to expand the knowledge base and how it impacts digestive health.”

Approaching probiotic marketing in EU
This further research is necessary due to the stringent regulatory environments for probiotics and probiotic marketing, especially in Europe. The EU has banned the use of the word “probiotics” from appearing on any product, as the definition of probiotics is seen to be a health claim in and of itself, according to opinions issued by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

“Europe is tough, but you can use cultures and active cultures [in the marketing], but not probiotic. So you can build your story around how GanedenBC30 maintains its active nature, or maintains an active culture longer and with a longer shelf-life,” says Cox.

GanedenBC30 has the distinct advantage of being spore-forming, Cox explains, which means that it's very stable.“It's going to be stable in the typical food processing parameters, such as pasteurization including HPP for example, it will survive that. It has a very long shelf life, and because it is a spore, it survives the low PH of the stomach and germinates into a vegetative cell as a typical probiotic in your intestinal tract.” In this way, the ingredient is suitable for a wide range of applications, even beyond beverages and bars.

Immune ingredients focus
Speaking on the status of Ganeden's immunity ingredient, Staimune, Cox explains that promotion is coming to a halt for the time being. Staimune is an activated form of GanedenBC30, and joined Ganedens primary immune health ingredient, Wellmune, which is a natural yeast beta glucan. “We are going to do some more research on this, as our other immune ingredient is so strong: Wellmune. Staimune is to be positioned in the immune health area, yet the Wellmune ingredient has so much published research.” Cox explains, “It's hard to compete, so the immune health focus is staying on Wellmune,” Cox concludes.

By Laxmi Haigh