Food & Beverage Asia October/November 2021

22
INGREDIENTS
Prebiotics market taps into
current demands
Consumers are more engaged with prebiotics than ever before as they
are not only searching for ways to improve their own health, but also that
of their pets.
Lumina’s research on post-purchase
review data found that prebiotics are
among the top performing ingredients
when it comes to the number of reviews
generated by products they are used in.
PLANT-BASED EATING A KEY
DRIVER
Plant-based eating is a global
macrotrend. Consumers’ motivations
for cutting out or down on animal
foods, like meat and dairy, range
from environmental sustainability
concerns to ethical considerations
and personal health objectives.
Prebiotics are trending on
multiple fronts right now,
creating rising demand for these
sophisticated fibre ingredients,
which have been shown to
nourish beneficial microorganisms
inhabiting the human gut.
Present research shows that
consumers are more engaged with
prebiotics than ever before as they
are not only searching for ways to
improve their own health, but also
that of their pets. This article looks
at some of the key trends driving
the prebiotics market and how likely
they are to develop in the future.
CONSUMERS VERY ENGAGED
WITH PREBIOTICS
Consumer interest in prebiotics
remains high, as gauged by Google
search trends. Lumina tracks
shifts in online searches within
the probiotics space over the last
12 and 24 months via its microbiome
search trends analysis dashboard.
At present, 1,633 keywords are
tracked through English language
searches worldwide. As evident
from Fig. 1, prebiotics, with 11.5k
average monthly searches between
February 2020 and 2021, is ahead of
terms such as cardiovascular health,
digestion and even immunity.
What also emerges from the graph
is that gut health remains a major
area of interest, and prebiotics
are highly relevant in this regard.
Terms implicated in gut health,
like constipation, gut-brain, IBS,
digestion, gut flora and diarrhoea,
generated a significant volume of
searches, and saw high growth.
Within probiotic supplements,
prebiotics as an ingredient also
resonate well with the end-user.
This shift opens up opportunities
for prebiotic fibres, since they are
either already present or can easily
be integrated into the plant-based
products that are substituting animalbased
foods. It also gives products,
which were always plant-based,
new leverage in terms of positioning.
Breakfast cereals are a good example.
In a recent webinar, D’Anne
Hayman, vice-president of Global
Innovation and Nutrition at Kellogg,
declared gut health to be the future
of nutrition. Kellogg’s strategy for the
immediate future was to “promote
its diverse range of plant-based
fibres to nourish the gut". This would,
according to Hayman, also include
new brands and novel plant fibres.
Comet Bio’s Arrabina branded fibre is
expected to hit the market in 2022.
Arrabina is made from arabinoxylan,
a constituent part of psyllium fibre,
amongst others. The company,
FOOD & BEVERAGE ASIA OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2021