What's next for probiotics?
Consumer engagement with fermented products, including kombucha and kefir, seems likely to continue as an indicator of a wider awareness of gut health, with its expanding implications, benefitting supplements as well as foods.
The bacteria segment is expected to keep dominating the probiotics market with new impulses for growth from the increasing employment of bacteria to maintain urogenital and vaginal health.
CityDietitians believes synbiotic products could prove a major opportunity in supplements, but only if brand-owners grapple successfully with questions of format and presentation. “The same is true of psychobiotics, which are a nice idea,” says Medlin. However, despite signs of success in Canada, commercial potential in Europe will be, as ever, contingent on what health claims, if any, are permitted in this area.
Another area which is ripe for development, according to Medlin, is the babies’ and infants’ probiotic market. Products could be delivered in packaged baby-foods and in supplements.
“In the supplements market, sachets can work well for kids,” she says, adding that probiotics are seen as having a particular role to play where the very young have been on a course of antibiotics or where they have been bottle-fed.
Consumer understanding of gut health spans across a large range. At one extreme, early adopters have a good understanding of the different types of probiotic bacteria and their health benefits, while the majority of consumers are
unaware of the complex processes in the gut and struggle to differentiate for example between prebiotics and probiotics.
“Today, there’s much more general awareness of the relation between gut health and general wellbeing, immune health, cognitive function and so on,” says Sophie Medlin, colorectal dietitian and director of City Dietitians in the UK. She makes the same point about consumer awareness of the microbiome and its significance.
“People are interested in it, but also confused by it,” she says. “Information can be extremely difficult to communicate clearly.” Here as elsewhere, she argues, the services of a healthcare professional can be invaluable in bridging the communication gap. That is not to say that non-medical influencers and brand ambassadors do not also play an important role on social media, even for the bigger brands. “Because they are non-medical, there are no regulatory implications, but the brand still gets its message out,” says Medlin
