Freeze-drying specialist explores applications within the booming probiotics market

11 Jan 2021 --- With consumer interest in probiotics and prebiotics rapidly increasing, freeze-drying is a technique renowned for its ability to preserve the quality and shelf life of these live microorganisms in food products.

Poul Andersen from European Freeze Dry, a Denmark and UK-based company, explains why he sees a growing potential for the technique to ensure better viability of cultured foods in the nutrition and food industries.

“The market for probiotics and prebiotics has grown at double-digit rates in the last ten years and is expected to continue to grow at healthy rates.”

“Scientific knowledge of probiotics and prebiotics has grown to a new level, while public consciousness of the health benefits that these products can bring, particularly in promoting good gut and intestinal health, continues to raise awareness of the benefits across the world,” he continues.

“Probiotic supplements in the forms of tablets and capsules are being recommended due to medical evidence of the impact on boosting digestion, metabolism and immune systems.”

Poul Ruben Andersen, CEO of Europe Freeze Dry.However, Andersen emphasizes the high growth rate of food products carrying live cultures and the importance of maintaining proper techniques.

Specifically, techniques that do not damage products’ quality when mass produced. 

“Consumers are also becoming more accustomed to seeing products with live probiotics such as kefir, kombucha and sauerkraut on supermarket shelves.”

“The question is whether the live cultures industry can continue to meet growing demand without sacrificing the quality and bio-availability of the probiotics on offer.”

Freeze drying probiotics
Freeze dried probiotic products can be supplied as a stable supplement or ground down into a powder and inserted into tablets, continues Andersen. 

For probiotic producers, this means live cultures can have an extended lifespan, reducing the possibility of waste and increasing sustainability, he asserts. 

The final product can be made into a supplement tablet that can be supplied “as is” or added into natural products, such as yogurt, milk or snacks such as cereal bars or plant-based dairy drinks.

How freeze-drying works
Freeze-drying technology has evolved since it was first used as a method to dry vegetables and meats in South American mountains more than one hundred years ago, explains Andersen.

Modern techniques take frozen probiotics and gently apply heat to the raw ingredient. 

During the freeze-drying process, a deep vacuum is applied, and under these conditions, the ice leaves the product as a vapor trail, which is then captured on an ice condenser.

Within 72 hours, the product dries out while remaining viable as a culture, leaving the final product structurally and nutritionally stable. This maintains all the health, digestive and intestinal benefits for several years.

Fermented foods on the rise 
Last year, Europe Freeze Dry spoke to NutritionInsight about the benefits freeze-drying can have for nutraceutical manufacturing, as opposed to probiotics. 

Europe Freeze Dry is now lending the same emphasis to the ballooning interest the COVID-19 pandemic has given to probiotics. 

In particular, fermented foods are being increasingly sought after for their proven benefits on gut and immune health. 

However, it was also established that a large number of such foods falsely purport to contain probiotics, after a recent interdisciplinary team of scientists set out to determine a global definition of fermentation.

In fact, say the researchers, many industry players incorrectly assume that fermentation is synonymous with probiotics. 

Edited

By Louis Gore-Langton