Postbiotics: a perspective on their quantification

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Biotechnology
• Food Science

Background:

• Postbiotics are defined as preparations of inanimate microorganisms or their components that provide health benefits.
• Characterizing and quantifying postbiotics presents challenges due to their complex composition.
• Existing methods lack a universal standard for postbiotic analysis.

Purpose of the Study:

• To address challenges in postbiotic characterization and quantification.
• To propose guiding principles for assessing postbiotic products.
• To facilitate collaborative problem-solving in the postbiotic field.

Main Methods:

• Discussion among academic and industry scientists at the ISAPP 2024 meeting.
• Review of current and emerging quantification techniques.
• Development of a decision tree for method selection.

Main Results:

• Full characterization of all postbiotic components is often infeasible.
• Essential elements for postbiotic description include progenitor microorganism identity/quantity and inactivation process.
• Flow cytometry (FC) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) are valuable tools, but no single 'gold standard' exists.

Conclusions:

• Quantification methods for postbiotics must be fit for purpose.
• A decision tree is proposed to guide the selection of appropriate methods.
• The proposed framework emphasizes microbial composition and provides guiding principles, acknowledging future technological advancements.