Gut health is a topic on the lips of many in the modern nutraceutical industry, with a significant proportion of companies in this space now catering to this application with a range of natural ingredients. Some of the most popular currently available solutions are the “biotics,” which aim to enhance the activity of the gut microflora while also boosting the presence of their useful by-products. Studies in this area have suggested that pre, pro and postbiotics can enhance a number of health areas, with many finding that they especially benefit the immunity of users.
A population that strongly relies on the optimal functioning of the immune system is young children; nasty germs spread around school playgrounds faster than you can say “achoo.” Although children are always getting ill, a lot of product developers in the nutraceutical space don’t include them in their studies; therefore, the benefits of postbiotics for immune health remain largely unknown in the younger demographic.
A company that aims to change this is Cargill. It has done a range of studies that examine the immune health benefits of postbiotics, with its most recent trial centring on a young — and somewhat snotty — cohort. Annabel Kartal-Allen spoke to Dr Justin Green, the Director of EpiCor’s Scientific Affairs at Cargill, to find out more.
Digestive function is now linked to immunity, cognition, mental wellness and skin health
The gut-immune axis
The gut microbiome’s ability to modulate the immune system is generally accepted in modern medicine and, now, many industries operating under the health umbrella are looking to harness this power to improve consumer well-being. Dr Green elaborates: “As our scientific knowledge of the microbiome expands, research is shedding new light on how the 100 trillion micro-organisms living in our digestive system impact our overall wellness — with digestive function now linked to immunity, cognition, mental wellness, skin health
and more.”
“It’s clear that the gastrointestinal tract has a complex job to do. It is tasked with keeping harmful molecules out of the body and defending it against pathogenic organisms … all while allowing nutrients in and enabling “good” bacteria to thrive. Successfully accomplishing all these feats requires a robust, selective, dynamic and balanced immune system; it’s no wonder the gut is home to more than 70% of our immune cells.” 
Dr Justin Green, the Director of EpiCor’s Scientific Affairs at Cargill
“Because a large proportion of our immune system resides in the gastrointestinal tract, the things we consume can impact the gut microbiota and, in turn, our immune system. There is still much to learn about the gut-immune connection and research is ongoing. One thing we continue to see, however, is the positive role that postbiotics may play,” says Dr Green.
How postbiotics boost the immune system
Like prebiotics and probiotics, postbiotics harness the benefits of micro-organisms. Although it’s known that this category of ingredients acts through the gut microbiome, the current scientific understanding of the mechanisms behind this effect are still somewhat unknown. Justin elaborates: “In the case of EpiCor, our yeast-derived postbiotic, it is thought that the metabolites and cells from the yeast interact with the gut lining, helping to support a healthy immune system.”
As well as being beneficial to immune health in several ways, Justin believes that “it should be more straightforward to incorporate postbiotics into complex delivery forms as they don’t need to be alive to exhibit their modes of action.” He does, however, stress the “importance of considering the individual formulation challenges associated with postbiotics and that efficacious doses are measured in grams — which can fit into one or two capsules, tablets or gummies.”
Postbiotics for kids
There has been a significant research output during the last decade focusing on biotic solutions in adults, with postbiotics being no exception. However, the pool of data regarding how these nutraceuticals can impact younger demographics was almost non-existent, according to Justin. “We know there are differences between the immune systems of adults and kids; a child’s immune system is more naïve as it hasn’t experienced as many challenges. As a result, we identified the need to conduct research that was specific to children to understand the efficacy of postbiotics within this population.”
To determine how well EpiCor could work for children, Cargill conducted a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled study during the peak 2022–2023 cold and flu season.1 The Canadian study, which was done in collaboration with KGK Science, spanned a 12 week period and incorporated more than 250 children.
This study, first of all, proved that yeast-derived postbiotics were safe and well tolerated in the participant population. Caregivers of the children involved also reported significant reductions in their cold and flu symptoms when they did occur. In addition, the participants themselves noted a reduction of troublesome symptoms such as “sore throat” and “muscle aches and pains.” Those who supplemented with EpiCor also used fewer traditional cold and flu medications compared with those who received the placebo, with those
supplementing with the postbiotic being 1.7 times less likely to use prescription over-the-counter medications during the study period. 
Catering supplements to little ones
Getting kids to engage with supplements can be challenging, so creating solutions that make the process fun and exciting for children is of great importance. Dr Green explains: “Gummies are widely popular — especially with children. Our research has revealed that two out of three parents prefer to give their children gummy supplements. There is also a real lack of data out there that demonstrates the efficacy of gummies in terms of enhancing health, with our literature review finding only 15 studies centred around gummies — of which only 5 involved children.”
50% of parents (were interested) in purchasing immune supplements for their child aged between 4 and 12
“Through our own market research, we have noted that parents are actively looking for solutions to support their child’s immune health, with approximately 50% of parents expressing an interest in purchasing immune supplements for their child aged between 4 and 12. Therefore, figuring out if these functional ingredients are beneficial for children is of great importance to the industry.”
“Although the main goal of this study was to evaluate the immune benefits of postbiotics in children, the results also add to the knowledge base surrounding postbiotic solutions and their efficacy in a gummy formulation. To our knowledge, this was the first peer-reviewed, published study to test a postbiotic in a gummy supplement.” Justin stresses that although not all functional ingredients can be incorporated into gummy formulations, it appears that postbiotics — which are inanimate and stable — can work well in this context. 
Testing postbiotic benefits in all demographics
With this study adding to the evidence that postbiotics can be useful for immune health in a range of different age demographics, Dr Green would like to explore the applications of the nutraceutical in other groups with high unmet needs: “There is still much to learn about this category, which is why we will continue to invest in research; this will allow us to better understand how and why postbiotics do what they do.”
“We’ve already shown that postbiotics support a healthy immune system in adults — but we can now add children aged 4–12 to that list too. Looking into how such functional ingredients can benefit the elderly, the very young and athletes will be the next step. Each group has its own unique challenges and it would be interesting to see how postbiotics solutions perform in these specific populations.”
Reference
1 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-024-03331-z