Infant probiotics enter the spotlight for baby gut health and immunity benefits

12 Jan 2023 --- As gut health interest grows, infant nutrition specialists highlight probiotics for their properties in boosting immunity and digestive benefits in the first years of life. NutritionInsight speaks with suppliers Fonterra, DSM and Lactalis on the latest developments in this space, while investigating a noted downward trend in the global baby food market attributed to a dip in birth rates, among other influential macroeconomic trends.

“While probiotics are still seen as most strongly connected with gut and digestive health, we know that parents also continue to rank immune protection for their children as a top concern. The demand for immunity support and gut health solutions will continue to drive probiotic ingredient demand,” says Angela Rowan, head of innovation at Early Life Nutrition Fonterra.

“Other more niche trends driving demand for infants and children include probiotics that support skin health or eczema and targeted digestive issues,” she adds.

Parents set the trend
Rowan says that new product launches for infant formula and young children’s foods and supplements have picked up in spite of the market slowdown. 

“Future growth is expected across all major infant probiotic formats, including powders, capsules, gummies, liquids, and infant and child milk formulas containing probiotics,” she says.

Niche trends driving demand for infants and children include probiotics that support skin health or eczema and targeted digestive issues, Rowan says.Laetitia Servajean, product manager at Lactalis Ingredients, details that “parents’ expectations shape infant nutrition market trends,” while underscoring that clean-label and plant-based products are currently in the spotlight.

“Clean-label offerings continue to be a top priority for parents, who mostly look for ‘free-from’ claims such as GMO-free and natural claims related to the absence of artificial ingredients and additives and organic certifications,” says Servajean.

She further details that in developed markets, the concept of “clean-label” has evolved beyond ingredients to tackle risk factors in sourcing, such as downstream agricultural activities. 

“Brands can focus on transparent and ethical sourcing to assuage parents concerned about the safety of agricultural practices.”

Rowan continues: “Parents looking for probiotics for their children want to know that they are safe, manufactured by a reputable company and are science-backed. Based on these credentials, we expect to see increasing use of probiotics into a broader range of food and supplement formats as encapsulation technologies enable greater stability across wider applications.”

“The applications will need to be believable, as well as meet parents’ needs for convenience, taste acceptability, and ease of consumption, plus the probiotics will still need to provide a benefit aligned to parents’ needs for their children,” she details.

Plant- and science-based
Servajean further notes that plant-based is another emerging trend in baby food “due to the rise of flexitarian consumers in Western markets.”

She says that the trend comes from flexitarian parents looking for more plant-based baby food because they perceive these as healthier and more environmentally friendly. Overall, they consider plant-based food more nutritious, ethical and sustainable.

“However, plant-based alternatives remain a niche market in the milk formula segment. In the Asia-Pacific region, which is emerging in plant-based diets, the growth is weak and accounts for less than 1% of launches between December 2016 and November 2021. Also, the global share of plant-based infant formula launches only stood at 2% during the same period,” Servajean details. 

As one example of plant-powered nutrition coming into force, Aaron Feinman, global business insights manager at DSM Health, Nutrition & Care, notes that the use of sustainably-sourced algal DHA in infant nutrition has been on the rise, replacing fish-based sources in Europe. 

“As a result of these changes, several recent infant nutrition launches have been able to include climate-neutral or climate-positive marks on the labels,” he notes.

Aside from plant-based positionings gaining ground, Rowan at Fonterra continues to explain that consumers demand safe, scientific backed and health-claimed probiotics. Therefore, brand owners seek premium probiotic ingredients that meet this criterion. Lactoferrin is an iron-binding protein found in cow and breast milk, commonly found in the baby food category to support the immune system (Credit: Fonterra).

She highlights that Fonterra’s SureStart probiotics LactoB HN001 and BifidoB HN019 have been used in the market for decades, with “proven safety and supported with several clinical studies across pregnancy, infancy and early childhood.”

She further details that LactoB HN001 is beneficial for immune and eczema support, and BifidoB HN019 helps reduce the risk of colds, flu and respiratory symptoms. 

“The market for probiotics supplements specifically for young children is also growing, and while many new products contain multiple strains, it is still important to parents to see the evidence behind ‘hero’ strains that are science-backed,” Rowan notes.

Mainstay ingredients
The infant nutrition industry is highly regulated and certain ingredients are required in most markets. Galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) and fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) are among the most common prebiotics used in baby formula, details Edmée Bertin, product manager at Lactalis Ingredients.

“Macronutrients such as protein, carbohydrates and fat, and micronutrients, including many vitamins and minerals, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and arachidonic acid (ARA) are all critical for an infant’s normal growth and development. They remain the mainstays of ingredients for infant formulas,” adds Feinman.

“Other optional ingredients may be added to early life nutrition products to optimize infant health, such as human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), are increasingly being added as research into the importance of these ingredients and awareness continues to grow.”

Feinman notes that the Inclusion of HMOs into infant nutrition products has been advancing rapidly, with new brands adding it to products for the first time in 2022, and additional HMO molecules being launched while continuing to gain regulatory approval in new markets.”

Meanwhile, HMOs are primarily driven by functionalities that bring the nutrient profile of infant formula closer to that of a mother’s breast milk. The commercial viability of this ingredient was recently driven up by new regulatory approvals for Denmark-based Chr. Hansen’s HMOs by authorities across the EU, US, Canada and Israel last September.

“HMOs are used to protect against infections and other diseases,” continues Bertin. “Besides that, they are used to contribute to brain development and cognition. In 2021, 20% of infant milk formulas contained HMO, which has jumped since 2017 from 0% in 2017 to 20% in 2021.”

She explains that lactoferrin is an iron-binding protein found in cow and breast milk, commonly found in the baby food category to support the immune system. Lactoferrin also promotes gastrointestinal tract growth.

Bearish market for infant formula
Consumer trust in the nutrition industry remains a key inflection point following last year’s reports of infant deaths following the consumption of Abbott Nutrition’s baby formula, which significantly impacted last year’s business.

Servajean says that the global baby food and infant formula market is decreasing in terms of consumption.Servajean at Lactalis says that the global baby food and infant formula market is now decreasing in terms of consumption. She notes that in 2021, consumption decreased in all the regions globally except for Africa. 

“Forecasts for 2023 are also expected to decline, which will strongly impact overall global demand. In 2021, Chinese imports fell every month since February, yet 70% of volumes come from the EU whereas at least 10% comes from France,” comments Servajean.

Servajean details that a drop in birth rates, increased breastfeeding and supply chain disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic are the main reasons for the market decline.

“The birth rate for the world in 2021 was 17,873 births per 1,000 people, a 1.13% decline from 2020. There is also a drastic drop in births in China, originally due to the implementation of the one-child policy. However, since the government relaxed its birth control, the birth rate continues to fall.”

The decrease in birth rates leads to brands focusing their attention on older babies, and targeting older babies will help brands of baby food and milk broaden their target audience. She adds that “in 2020, 44% of infants under six months of age were exclusively breastfed worldwide.”

Meanwhile, logistical difficulties related to the pandemic have also slowed trade, with imports disrupted in early 2020. 

“The US Department of Agriculture reports that Chinese middle-class consumers choose local infant milk more often, as it is more available and better controlled than a few years ago. Especially since the price gap with imported infant formula is high, and local brands have been waging a price war.” Servajean

“Premiumization opportunities in the infant milk formula Industry should continue shortly with the arrival of more specific formulas such as goat and sheep or formulas enriched in HMO,” says Servajean.

By Beatrice Wihlander