Hundreds of billions in high activity, the self-redemption of the probiotic market

“Enhancing the activity of probiotics increases the consumer experience of products, and the trillion high-activity probiotics help open the trillion market.”

Good reputation but poor sales is the most accurate portrayal of the current sales situation in the probiotic terminal brand market.

In recent years, consumer awareness of probiotics has been increasing year by year. Keen brand owners are actively promoting their probiotic product strategies by learning from the development trends of probiotics abroad and the huge demand market domestically. Currently, the application of probiotics has touched all aspects of people's lives.

With the in-depth research of major probiotic companies onprobiotics, various studies promoting human health have been publicly released, and more beneficial probiotic functions have been discovered, leading to rapid development in the probiotic terminal market. However, most probiotic products labeled as health products have not become well-received products among the public. The reason lies in the lack of noticeable consumer experience, with some even being labeled as useless.

Live probiotics are actually very fragile.

In 2001, the FAO/WHO Joint Expert Committee first clarified the scientific definition of probiotics:Probiotics mainly refer to active microorganisms that are beneficial to the host's health when consumed in sufficient quantities.There are two key terms here: 'live' and 'sufficient quantity'. This definition clearly indicates that probiotics have a certain lifespan and will eventually die like various primates. In fact, since the birth of probiotics on the raw material production line, it must go through at least three life-and-death thresholds to safely reach the intestines and exert its effects.

Threshold One: Loss during production and processing.

The overall process of probiotic raw material production is subject to strict requirements regarding temperature, humidity, and operation in a sterile environment. Each production stage has very strict conditions. After the probiotic raw materials leave the factory, the changing environment poses higher demands on the adaptability of the strains, and during the process of turning raw materials into products, different processes, product formulas, production environments, and operating methods all significantly affect the survival rate of probiotics.

Currently, mainstream probiotic product OEM factories use the addition of probiotics in production as the standard for probiotic activity. Considering the losses during the actual production process, if 10 billion probiotics are added, the probiotics in the finished product will definitely be less than 10 billion. This difference in the number of strains will determine the final consumer experience.

Threshold Two: Loss during storage, logistics, and transportation.

Currently, apart fromBacillus coagulans, which can withstand high temperatures of 100°C, most probiotics are suitable for storage in environments around 2°C-10°C, with a maximum storage temperature not exceeding 50°C; otherwise, probiotics will almost all perish. The temperature difference between the north and south of China can reach about 70°C, and the winter-summer temperature difference can reach about 45°C, posing a significant challenge to the transportation and storage of probiotics. The series of processes from production completion to the final delivery to consumers involves many environmental and temperature changes, leading to probiotic loss.

Tests on a certain brand of six-strain probiotic solid beverage showed that high temperature and humidity conditions adversely affect the number of active probiotics, resulting in significant loss of probiotic activity.

Threshold Three: The complex human body structure leads to non-combatant losses of probiotics.

It is well known that the human body has a powerful digestive system that produces some highly corrosive secretions to digest and break down food. To survive in the intestinal mucosa, microorganisms must endure many extreme environments. Changes in pH, low oxygen levels, nutrient limitations, and increased osmotic pressure all pose potential obstacles to survival. During the consumption of probiotics, they are ingested through the mouth and enter the gastrointestinal tract, needing to withstand the attacks of gastric acid and bile to successfully reach the intestines and colonize to exert their effects. The efficacy of probiotics often depends on the pH of the patient's gastrointestinal tract, where most are killed in the stomach (pH 1-2) and can only survive and function after entering the small intestine (pH 6-8).

Experiments simulating gastric fluid environments have shown that the longer probiotics are in gastric fluid, the lower their survival rate, showing an accelerated decay trend.

At the same time, the liver secretes up to one liter of bile into the intestines daily, and exposure to bile is also a serious challenge. Bile is a digestive secretion that plays an important role in the emulsification and solubilization of lipids. It can affect the phospholipids and proteins of cell membranes, disrupting the homeostasis of the intracellular environment. Therefore, the ability of pathogens and commensal organisms to tolerate bile is crucial for their survival and subsequent colonization in the intestinal mucosa.

Increasing the number of high-activity probiotics is the most realistic choice to enhance consumer product experience.

Most probiotic products from domestic companies are at the level of tens of billions, with some brands even below tens of billions. Over time and due to improper storage, the number of live probiotics in the products purchased by consumers often fails to meet standards, which is one of the main reasons why probiotic terminal products cannot achieve their health functions.

Therefore, ensuring the survival rate and activity of probiotic strains is key to their effectiveness. Increasing the number of live probiotics in product development, along with excellent high-stability probiotic preparation processes, to ensure the survival quantity of probiotics in products, has become a realistic choice to enhance consumer product experience.

According to the latest clinical research from the University of Milan, high-activity, multi-strain probiotics have better colonization effects in the human body.

After participants consumed for 14 days, fecal samples showed that the survival rate of active probiotics in the high-dose probiotic formulation group was significantly higher than that in the low-dose group; moreover, all four strains in the high-dose group were successfully recovered in live form, while none of the five subjects in the low-dose group were successfully recovered, indicating that the high-dose group had more surviving probiotic strains in the human body.

More clinical research results indicate that high-activity multi-strain probiotics have stronger effects in the human body.

In patients with antibiotic-associated diarrhea and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea, 500 billion and 1,000 billion composite probiotic formulations (Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus casei) were administered for five days, and the results showed that the high-dose group significantly shortened the number of days needed to improve diarrhea compared to the low-dose group.

Foreign countries are leading the way, with tens of billions of high-activity probiotics becoming mainstream in the market.

Systematic special research on high-activity probiotics in European and American countries began earlier than in the domestic market, leading the development direction of the entire probiotic market. The domestic market started relatively late, resulting in a delayed market perception. Well-known foreign brands such as Nestlé, Life Space, and Renew Life are continuously launching new high-activity probiotic products, with the number of live bacteria exceeding the hundred billion mark and continuing to grow.

Renew Life Ultimate Care in the U.S. (150 billion active probiotics per capsule), NOW Foods in the U.S. (100 billion active probiotics per capsule), and Nestlé Garden of Life in the U.S. (200 billion active probiotics per two capsules).

As the depth and breadth of probiotic applications increase year by year, consumer awareness and expectations will continue to rise. Guiding and meeting consumer needs is a key point for all brands. Enhancing probiotic activity and increasing consumer product experience will help open the hundred billion market for high-activity probiotics.

The above content references:

[1] DOI: 10.16043/j.cnki.cfs.2020.15.079

[2] Gao XW, Mubasher M, Fang CY, Reifer C, Miller LE. 2010 Dose-response efficacy of a proprietary probiotic formula of Lactobacillus acidophilus CL1285 and Lactobacillus casei LBC80R for antibiotic-associated diarrhea and Clostridium difficile-associated diarrhea prophylaxis in adult patients. Am J Gastroenterol. 105(7):1636-41.

[3] Effect of Cell Concentration on the Persistence in the Human Intestine of Four Probiotic Strains Administered through a Multispecies Formulation, Valentina Taverniti, et al.

[4] APPLIED AND ENVIRONMENTAL MICROBIOLOGY, June 2005, p.3060-3067 0099-2240/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.71.6.3060-3067.2005 Copyright © 2005

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