Postbiotics in Functional Foods: Production, Delivery, Preservation, and Regulation

Area of Science:

• Microbiology
• Food Science
• Biotechnology

Background:

• Postbiotics, defined by ISAPP, are inanimate microbial components offering health benefits.
• They possess enhanced stability for food processing and storage compared to live probiotics.
• Existing literature on postbiotics is fragmented, lacking a comprehensive review of their development pipeline.

Purpose of the Study:

• To review and integrate evidence on postbiotic development, production, delivery, and applications.
• To critically assess the ISAPP 2021 definition and its implications for research.
• To identify bottlenecks and propose solutions for postbiotic functional food development.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of fermentation-based production systems and non-thermal inactivation technologies (HPP, PEF, ultrasound, cold plasma, supercritical CO2).
• Assessment of various delivery systems (spray-drying, microencapsulation, nanoencapsulation, active packaging).
• Review of regulatory frameworks in the US, EU, Japan, and India.

Main Results:

• Non-thermal inactivation methods preserve thermolabile compounds like bacteriocins and phenolics.
• Delivery systems impact gastrointestinal survival and food compatibility.
• Regulatory landscapes lack explicit postbiotic definitions, posing challenges.
• Key translational bottlenecks include lack of standardized assays and quality benchmarks.

Conclusions:

• Harmonized regulations and characterization standards are crucial for advancing postbiotic functional foods.
• Addressing standardization and regulatory gaps will facilitate the translation of postbiotic research into viable products.
• Postbiotics present a promising avenue for functional foods due to their stability and health benefits.