The Rise of Functional Food and Beverage Highlighting the Trend on Gut Health, Dietary Fibers and Prebiotics

Functional foods are food items containing bioactive elements that exert beneficial effects on body functions. These elements may occur naturally in the food, like phytochemicals found in produce, or be introduced during processing, such as probiotics infused into yogurt. Additionally, functional foods can undergo modifications to amplify their health-promoting properties, such as fortified drinks or snacks.

The functional food and beverage industry has seen a significant rise, particularly with a focus on gut health. This trend is driven by consumers’ increasing awareness of holistic health and the recognition of the role that biotics, including probiotics, prebiotics, postbiotics, and Synbiotics, play in improving gut health. According to a Innova Lifestyle & Attitudes Survey (2023), consumers name gut/digestive health as the top benefit that can be provided by biotics.

Enriching Dairy Products with Prebiotics and Probiotics for Holistic Health

Despite the presence of probiotics in the dairy category, there appears to be an opportunity for dairy products enriched with prebiotics. Prebiotics, serve as food for probiotics, the beneficial bacteria. By nourishing these beneficial bacteria, prebiotics help enhance the health benefits that probiotics offer, such as improving digestive comfort. Combining prebiotics and probiotics in dairy products could leverage the synergistic relationship between these two types of ingredients, enhancing their health benefits and offering a compelling product focused on gut health. Moreover, a prebiotic ingredient is interesting in plant-based alternatives, to keep the gut health positioning.

The functional food and beverage industry is increasingly focusing on gut health, with dietary fibers and prebiotics playing a significant role. Acacia gum is widely used in the dietary industry for fiber enrichment and prebiotic effect. It has scientifically proven and recognized prebiotic effects, in addition to an excellent digestive tolerance and no intestinal discomfort. The link between prebiotics like acacia fiber inavea™ PURE ACACIA and probiotics found in dairy products is a promising area for NPD (New Product Development), especially in the dairy category, which has room for innovation with products that contain both prebiotics and probiotics.

Acacia gum is also widely used as a healthy stabilizer, an emulsifier and a mouthfeel improver, in plant-based applications for example. Acacia gum’s pH is compatible with milk proteins, and is resistant to acidity and heat.

Building a Healthy Gut: The Science Behind Nexira’s inavea™ PURE ACACIA Prebiotic

Nexira’s inavea™ PURE ACACIA is a high-quality organic acacia fiber known for its prebiotic effect and numerous health benefits. Here are key points from the presentation regarding the prebiotic effect of acacia fiber:

Prebiotic properties: inavea™ PURE ACACIA is a soluble dietary fiber with a high digestive tolerance, making it an excellent prebiotic that supports gut health and immunity.
Digestive comfort: Acacia gum, a complex polysaccharide, offers high digestive comfort due to its gradual fermentation in the colon, allowing up to 30g/day consumption without discomfort.
Healthy bacteria stimulation: It promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, leading to improved gut health and immunity.
Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFA) production: Studies show that it enhances SCFA synthesis, particularly butyrate, which supports colon health and immunity.
Transit modulation: Always investing in new research for its historic ingredient, the acacia fiber, Nexira releases a new trial on human showing the benefit of inavea™ PURE ACACIA on transit modulation and its extreme tolerability on sensitive people with IBS.

Nexira’s commitment to sustainability and quality ensures that it remains a premium organic ingredient with proven health benefits answering consumers’ demands for:

Clean Label Trend – Prebiotic acacia is an all-natural dietary fiber of 100% vegetable origin, meeting consumer demand for no artificial ingredients, allowing clean-label products. Additionally, inavea™ range is organic and sustainably sourced with a carbon neutral footprint.
Positive Nutrition – With a 90% soluble fiber content [on a dry weight basis], acacia fiber enables manufacturers to list High Fiber content on nutritional labels.
External Certifications – To promote a high level of transparency and trust, Nexira’s acacia ingredients have a number of valuable certifications, including: Non-GMO Project verified, organic certfied, and FODMAP-Friendly™ certified. In addition, acacia is officially confirmed as a dietary fiber by the FDA

From Lab to Dairy Shelf: Unveiling the Probiotic Potential of inavea™ PURE ACACIA

A study conducted by J. Delettre, S. Ghorbal, and Pr C. Béal from INRA and AgroParisTech in France explored the effects of inavea™ PURE ACACIA on probiotics and ferments in dairy products. The study used two botanical origins of inavea™ PURE ACACIA, from Senegal (A) and Seyal (B) and tested them at two concentrations (8 and 16 g/L) on 22 microorganisms from 8 different species. The results indicated that:

Bacterial growth: It may enhance the growth of various bacterial strains, including Lactobacillus acidophilus, Lactobacillus bulgaricus, and Bifidobacterium, among others.
Physiological status: The viability, cultivability, and acidifying activity of certain bacterial strains were improved in the presence of inavea™ PURE ACACIA during their growth.
Probiotic survival: It may improve the survival rate of probiotics, particularly during processes like spray-drying and storage, which is crucial for maintaining the efficacy of probiotic dairy products.

These findings demonstrate the beneficial impact of inavea™ PURE ACACIA on the growth and survival of beneficial bacteria in dairy products, supporting its use as a prebiotic ingredient. In summary, it offers significant technological advantages for food manufacturers, particularly in the dairy sector, by enhancing the growth and survival of probiotics without compromising the sensory qualities of the product.

Harnessing the Power of Prebiotics: Introducing inavea™ BAOBAB ACACIA

As the trend of prebiotics in dairy continues to gain momentum, Nexira’s inavea™ BAOBAB ACACIA stands out as a premium prebiotic ingredient that not only supports digestive comfort but also aligns with the growing consumer demand for sustainable and ethically sourced products. inavea™ BAOBAB ACACIA is a unique blend of two African botanicals, offering a synergistic prebiotic effect that contributes to the balance of microflora and overall gut health. This ingredient is organic, FODMAP-friendly certified, and part of Nexira’s commitment to achieving a carbon-neutral footprint for the inavea™ brand. With its proven prebiotic properties and sustainability pledge, inavea™ BAOBAB ACACIA is an ideal choice for fortifying a wide range of applications, including dairy products, with high-prebiotic ingredients that cater to health-conscious consumers.

The Power of Acacia in Alt-dairy Applications

Acacia gum, also known as gum Arabic, is a natural ingredient derived from the sap of the Acacia tree. It is widely recognized for its technological properties when used in food products, such as dairy items or alt-dairy. In Dairy, acacia gum helps to preserve the creaminess, while reducing the fat content of your products, making it the perfect answer for healthier high-quality products.

In Dairy Alternatives as well as in Plant-Based Drinks, acacia gum builds texture and mouthfeel. It also contributes to emulsify and stabilize fat and suspend insoluble particles (pulp, minerals, proteins, etc.).

Here are some key technological properties of it:

Neutral Sensory Impact: It is characterized by its lack of taste and smell, which means it can be added to food products without altering their original flavor profile.
Texture Preservation: When incorporated into yogurt, it does not affect the texture, ensuring that the product retains its desired mouthfeel.
Viscosity Stability: inavea™ PURE ACACIA maintains the viscosity of yogurt, preventing any unwanted changes in the consistency of the product.
Acid Resistance: It is resistant to acidic conditions, which is particularly important for dairy products like yogurt that have a low pH. This ensures that the fiber remains stable and does not affect the pH or Dornic acidity of the yogurt.
Flavor Enhancement: Despite its neutral taste, it can improve the release of flavors in the food product, potentially enhancing the overall sensory experience.

Nexira also offers Thixogum™, an all-natural range of texturizers and stabilizers, ready-to-use synergistic combinations, based on acacia.

In this range, Thixogum ^TM G is the ideal clean-label stabilizer for vegetable drinks

Plant-based drink formulations can be challenging due to the need to emulsify and stabilize fat, suspend insoluble particles (pulp, minerals, proteins…), and build texture/mouthfeel.

Thixogum™ G is the high performance union of a natural emulsifier (acacia gum) and a natural stabilizer (gellan). It ensures the successful development of plant-based beverages, and fulfills consumers’ expectations for appealing taste & texture.

Thanks to its suspensoïd properties, Thixogum™ G is able to stabilize insoluble ingredients with minimal impact to viscosity. It is a perfect stabilizer for dairy alternatives. It can be used in beverages made up of insoluble compounds to suspend particles such as in fruit juices to maintain a homogenous suspension of fruit pulp.

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This communication is not intended to the final consumer. It provides scientific information for professionals only. Communications to the final consumer have to be checked according to local regulations in force, since the conditions of use are beyond our control. This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.