Pioneering the future of nutrition: Lallemand Health Solutions’ tech-driven approach

05 Feb 2024 --- Digitalization, next-generation technologies and scientific advancements are set to shake up the supplement and nutraceutical industry in the coming years. Companies are increasingly utilizing modern tech to increase efficiency, provide scientific backing, improve customer and consumer experience and contribute to the broader understanding of complex physiological solutions to modern health and nutrition needs.

Lallemand Health Solutions reveals it is pioneering a digital transformation to enhance operational efficiency and employee experience in its facilities by adopting public cloud technologies and tailored digital tools, which facilitate better communication and provide actionable insights.Camille Binachon, product manager at Lallemand Health Solutions.

Nutrition Insight sits down with Camille Binachon, Lallemand Health Solutions’ product manager, to discuss how it uses modern tech to improve health for the public and within the company.

In what ways does Lallemand Health Solutions’ digital transformation empower its employees and improve their workplace experience?
Binachon: Lallemand Health Solutions sees the role of digitalization as a way to improve operational efficiency within its facilities. Since the introduction of public cloud technologies, there has been a significant efficiency and productivity enhancement for the company’s users. Implementing a new digital solution on the work floor facilitates communications within production lines, delivers actionable insights and empowers employees. Lallemand Health Solutions has chosen a tailored application that allows it to structure and manage the flow of information inside a factory, resulting in an increase in performance within the operating teams. With this kind of digital tool, employees can identify process flaws, improve production and simply spend less time finding the data they need. Lallemand Health Solutions’ digital solution empowers workers to perform their tasks more independently, while encouraging learning-as-you-go and skills development. The implementation of digital tools at the production level interconnects warehouses and supply chains and can help create a predictive machine maintenance schedule. This transformation increases operational efficiency and reduces production lead time while supporting sustainable practices across the value chain. 

In the context of labor shortages and as employees seek jobs with a purpose, digitalization improves interactions, streamlines communications and gives the opportunity to work more independently. Being connected gives the employees the ability to see what is happening in real time, analyze issues, provide feedback, share ideas and make decisions. Digitalization of the workplace puts humans at the heart of the digital ecosystem, providing them with more tools to add sense and meaning to their lives. And when work tasks feel meaningful, employees tend to perform better, exhibit greater commitment and are significantly less likely to seek new job opportunities.

State-of-the-art technologies and automation serve Lallemand Health Solutions production workers who perform repetitive and physically challenging tasks. For example, to help carry and weigh raw material, new exoskeletons will soon be implemented. They are perceived as a welcome solution to boost well-being and safety in the workplace, resulting in increased motivation.

What are the implications of the modern implementations for the future of nutrition?
Binachon: As the self-care movement propels consumers toward proactive health choices, the quest for holistic well-being will be stimulated by innovations in the microbiome space. The microbiome, and especially the gut microbiome, is now established by scientific communities and consumers as an organ that can potentially have a direct impact on overall health and on specific health conditions, and new areas are constantly being explored. In the past ten years, the number of publications on the microbiome has multiplied by over 50 times, growing from under 400 publications in 2013 to over 25,000 in 2023. The next few years will be pivotal for the biotics future. With its ambitious research program, Lallemand Health Solutions aims to go one step further in the exploration of the microbiome to improve human health.The science and research around the microbiome has grown exponentially over the last ten years.

With a team of over 40 people in research and development, more than 430 publications, more than 160 clinical trials plus over 20 ongoing clinical trials, including upwards of 2500 participants worldwide, Lallemand Health Solutions is always at the forefront of the newest developments and invests in research to further understand the microbiome to participate actively in the future of nutrition.

How does Lallemand Health Solutions integrate the holistic health approach into its product development and marketing strategies?
Binachon: Lallemand Health Solutions integrates the holistic health approach in its product development and marketing strategies by studying the mechanisms of actions and by evaluating many parameters in its preclinical and clinical trials. For example, Lallemand Health Solutions has recently conducted a clinical trial with its probiotic formula Cerebiome (L. helveticus Rosell-52 and B. longum Rosell-175), known for its action through the gut-brain axis. In this new proof-of-concept clinical trial (not published yet), performed under the supervision of a dermatologist, Lallemand Health Solutions investigated if Cerebiome can have a positive impact on mood and stress, and also on sleep and skin appearance in healthy young women. Results will be available soon.

Lallemand Health Solutions is solidifying its position in the nutricosmetics market with a dedicated team that is approaching players in the cosmetic industry expressing an interest in developing ‘skinbiotics’ to complement its product range with documented solutions and potentially new claims for nutricosmetics, which are orally administered nutritional supplements formulated and marketed to help take care of skin, nails and hair’s natural beauty. Beyond benefits on physical appearance, nutricosmetics objectives are to promote holistic health and to concede a state of overall well-being, starting from the inside out.

What specific consumer trends have you identified that drive demand for dietary supplements and functional foods, and how is Lallemand Health Solutions responding to these trends?
Binachon: Lallemand Health Solutions has identified some specific consumer trends that are driving demand for dietary supplements and functional foods. One of them being the importance for individuals to maintain good mental health and emotional wellness, both considered as equally important as physical well-being and established as an integral part of overall health. As a result, consumers are actively looking for solutions to enhance their well-being through mental health. In the probiotic category, only a few solutions have been clinically studied to support the gut-brain axis for mental health support and Lallemand Health Solutions remains a pioneer in studying this area. Cerebiome by Lallemand is the most documented psychobiotic to help moderate the physical and psychological symptoms of occasional stress and feelings of anxiety. It is backed by five double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled human studies and over ten preclinical studies. Cerebiome is the first probiotic to have obtained authority-approved health claims on the gut-brain axis in Canada and Brazil.Lallemand Health Solutions is conducting research in nutricosmetics and the gut-skin axis.

Another trend Lallemand Health Solutions has identified comes from the increasing market demand for supplements that are not only delicious, but also convenient and effortless to consume. The numbers speak for themselves, as the gummies supplement market is experiencing a dynamic growth observed globally. Non-pill formats now make up one-third of the market and continue to grab market share, while growth in traditional pill formats is declining. In response to this trend, Lallemand Health Solutions, in partnership with Canada-based experts Herbaland, has developed gummy formulas, packed with probiotics for gut health and postbiotics for natural defenses.

With the increasing consumer interest in probiotics, how is Lallemand Health Solutions positioning its products to meet the diverse health needs covered by probiotics?
Binachon: Lallemand Health Solutions is positioning its documented probiotic bacteria and yeast products to meet the diverse health needs covered by probiotics, in the dietary supplements, nutricosmetics, and food probiotics industries. The health applications of Lallemand Health Solutions’ probiotics include gut health, natural defenses, mental health, women’s health, skin health, oral health, sport, metabolic health and infant health. 

The health benefits of probiotic strains tend to be more and more specific and targeted. One of Lallemand Health Solutions’ expert solutions, IBacilluS+, has just been underscored as an effective adjuvant to conventional irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) therapies in a comprehensive systematic review and meta-analysis. IBacilluS+ is a probiotic combination for serious gut conditions, documented in 120 clinical studies involving more than 10,000 participants across various medical contexts, ranging from ulcerative colitis to acute gastritis, Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), Helicobacter pylori, antibiotic-associated diarrhea and IBS. This specific review reaffirms the substantial gut health benefits associated with Lallemand Health Solutions’ probiotic bacteria formula for IBS management. The clinical evidence demonstrates that IBacilluS+ can minimize recurrent symptoms and maximize quality of life and reinforces the clinical findings made over the last decade.

What challenges and opportunities do you see in formulating probiotic gummies, and how will Lallemand’s partnership with Herbaland address these?
Binachon: In collaboration with its Canadian partner Herbaland, Lallemand Health Solutions has developed two types of gummy formulas to start with, one packed with probiotics to support gut health and one postbiotics formula to support natural defenses. Due to the extreme conditions of the gummies manufacturing process, not all bacterial strains qualify for incorporation into gummies. Bacillus subtilis Rosell-179, a spore-forming probiotic was selected for the gut health formula and showed intact bacteria structure after the gummy process. While in unfavorable conditions, Bacillus probiotics have the ability to undergo a specific process called sporulation, which leads to the formation of an endospore. Thanks to this protective endospore, spore-forming probiotics are naturally capable of surviving extreme conditions and sustaining survival after going through the gummy process. Extensive research has been conducted on Bacillus subtilis Rosell-179, investigating both its survival capacity and its health benefits.Consumer preference for formats like gummies is driving innovation in the nutraceutical and supplement spaces.

Also, the postbiotic Bifidobacterium lactis Lafti B94 was selected for the development of the natural defenses’ formula and showed intact cells after heat-inactivation and gummy process. Postbiotics are generated by heat inactivation of probiotics. Lallemand Health Solutions’ gentle process maintains bacteria cell integrity, which translates into enhanced technical capabilities and potential health effects. Thermal treatments are applied to bacteria cells in order to inactivate them, the main one occurring after fermentation. This process is designed to keep the cells intact and its efficiency was demonstrated by microscopy. Due to the fact that postbiotics are generated by heat inactivation, they are no longer subject to the constraints associated with the fragility of live bacteria, making postbiotics particularly suitable for gummies’ harsh process. Heat-inactivated bacteria have shown significant effects on gastrointestinal and immune health.

How is Lallemand Health Solutions contributing to the broader understanding of the microbiome through projects like the French Gut project?
Binachon: With at least 70% of human gut microbiome species being uncharacterized, it is crucial to participate in initiatives to better understand the gut microbiome. In the quest to understand the microbiome and its role in human health, Lallemand Health Solutions has joined the French Gut project. The French Gut project is a research endeavor initiated by INRAe-MetaGenoPolis, together with a consortium of public and private partners in the field of microbiota. This project aims to collect 100,000 French intestinal metagenomes and their associated nutritional and clinical data in health for analysis purposes and to deepen knowledge of the links between microbiota, diet and lifestyle. Participating in the French Gut project creates collective intelligence and puts in common various expertise. Lallemand Health Solutions volunteers in all the working groups and actively promotes this initiative.

By William Bradford Nichols