Postbiotic ingredients enter conversation on digestive health – Baking Business
Bakers for over a decade have learned about how prebiotics and probiotics offer health benefits, especially for digestion. Now, they may be hearing about another term: postbiotics, which are heat-stable and thus will survive in baked foods.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit, according to the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP). Prebiotics, which include fiber ingredients, serve a…….
Bakers for over a decade have learned about how prebiotics and probiotics offer health benefits, especially for digestion. Now, they may be hearing about another term: postbiotics, which are heat-stable and thus will survive in baked foods.
Probiotics are live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit, according to the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP). Prebiotics, which include fiber ingredients, serve as food for beneficial microbes/probiotics in the body. Research continues to gain insight on how prebiotic ingredients benefit probiotic ingredients.
A panel for the ISAPP recently defined a postbiotic as a “preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host.”
“Postbiotics differ from probiotics in that they don’t contain living microorganisms,” said Nick Kruczynski, business development director, microbiome solutions, food and beverage for Chicago-based ADM. “Rather, they are inanimate, yet still offer functionality. Postbiotics are emerging as important products in the food industry because of their ability to withstand harsh processing conditions like high heat in baking.”
INTEREST FROM ADM, CARGILL
Both ADM and Cargill have expanded their postbiotic ingredient offerings. The topic came up in ADM’s global investor day on Dec. 10.
“They can be produced outside our body and then being added to food and beverages to modulate our gut landscape, and that becomes possible because they are heat-stable biotics,” said Mark Lotsch, president of Global Health & Wellness for ADM. “And ADM is on the pioneering edge of this new postbiotics category that opens up so many opportunities in food, in beverage, in pet solutions. “
ADM offers probiotic and postbiotic ingredients that work well within a variety of grain-based applications, including bread and cereal, Mr. Kruczynski said.
“For instance, DE111 is our Bacillis subtilis strain, which has been studied in nine human clinical trials related to digestive health, immune health and more,” he said. “DE111 is a spore-forming probiotic, which means it can survive different formulation conditions that may damage conventional lactic acid bacteria-based probiotics.”
Minneapolis-based Cargill in 2018 acquired EpiCor, a supplier of postbiotic ingredients. EpiCor now is part of Cargill Health Technologies, a business within Cargill.
“With over a dozen published studies including multiple human clinical trials, EpiCor postbiotic is a well-researched ingredient,” said Cashtyn Lovan, marketing manager for Cargill.
Earlier in 2021 Cargill partnered with The Harris Poll to gain insight into consumers’ understanding of issues around digestive health and immunity, she said. The survey found 35% of respondents associated postbiotics with a healthy gut and 28% said they knew postbiotics help support immunity.
“Those results are encouraging as postbiotics are still new to the consumer marketplace,” Ms. Lovan said. “In fact, it was only …….
