Stratum Resource post, A Glimpse into the Impact of COVID-19

WholeFoods Magazine recently asked industry experts to expand on how they see the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on raw materials in the industry.  Our Scientific and Regulatory Manager, Nena Dockery, was asked to join the panel of experts. Here’s what she had to say.  

What are the ongoing impacts of the pandemic? Do you foresee any changes being permanent?  

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has disrupted life in ways we could never have imagined, continues to have a substantial impact over a year and a half after we first became aware of the SARS-cov-2 virus. The dramatic rise in dietary supplement purchases in the first few months, particularly immune support supplements, has slowed from its 11.6% growth in 2020, but continues to contribute to substantial overall growth, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.6% between 2021 and 2028. Ingredients that have a history of supporting the immune system, such as vitamins C and D, zinc, probiotics and botanicals such as elderberry make up the bulk of the growth, but new ingredients and formulations have also made their way into the marketplace.   

In addition to the increase in immune support products, supplements designed to help with mood, stress, or sleep have also increased dramatically. This product category began to take hold prior to the pandemic but escalated as the pandemic emerged. Over the past 4 years, there has been a 49% increase in web searches for ‘stress supplement’, according to Google trends; and there was a 37% year-over-year growth in searches for ‘sleep supplement’ in January of 2021. As the pandemic lingered on and on, along with the social and political unrest, more consumers began to seek out products that could help them simply deal with the turmoil.  Demand for these products is likely to continue and even increase for the foreseeable future. 

The pandemic has brought challenges in conjunction with this growth. The supply chains for some ingredients and manufacturing process components remain in a great deal of upheaval. The pandemic and the continuing effects of tariffs have impacted the availability of some ingredients or their transport from certain regions, bringing about unanticipated delays.  Strong demand has exacerbated this problem, often leading to companies making substitutions in ingredients or changing their production procedures.  

What trends are you seeing—in terms of what’s new, what’s in-demand, etc.? 

One of the biggest trends bursting into the biotics category of the industry is consumer interest in postbiotics, leading to a nearly 1,300% increase in gut health-related Google searches over the past 2 years according to Lumina Intelligence.  The understanding of postbiotics is so new that even their identity is still being elucidated. However, in May 2021, the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) published a consensus statement on the definition of postbiotics - “a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host”. Postbiotics are deliberately inactivated microbial cell and/or cell components, with or without metabolites that contribute to demonstrated health benefits. 

Postbiotics provide an entirely new arena for supporting the health of our own individual microbiomes. Because postbiotics do not contain live cells, they are not subject to either the gastric or shelf stability issues of human-derived probiotics, nor do they present the manufacturing challenges of spore-forming bacteria. Most postbiotics are marketed for support of the digestive process, which can be intertwined with immune system support, since our intestinal microbiota play such critical roles in immune system functioning.  Though the term postbiotic had not yet been assigned, some of these inanimate microbial preparations have been around and utilized for decades.  One such postbiotic with a history of use that expands over a century is LBiome™ (Lactobacillus LB), marketed by Stratum Nutrition.   

LBiome is a postbiotic ingredient derived from two human-derived bacterial species, Limosilactobacillus fermentum and Lactobacillus delbrueckii. This postbiotic contains both the heat-treated bacterial cells and cell components as well as the cell-free supernatant containing the beneficial metabolites of microbial fermentation.  It has been the subject of multiple published research studies focusing on its benefits in supporting a healthy functioning digestive tract.  

On the horizon is the expansion of probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics for support of the largest organ in the human body – the skin. Initially arising from an interest in enhancing the understanding of the total human microbiome, products targeting support for the skin microbiota began to enter the market about five years ago. Since that time, data from a Lumina Intelligence published market-focused ‘skinbiotics’ report in May 2019 showed that the probiotic cosmetics product count had increased from 122 SKUs from 58 brands to 289 SKUs from 138 brands within two years. This interest increased even more in 2020, when people began wearing masks and dealing with skin irritations, such as acne or eczema, associated with some mask types. Most interest seems to be in skinbiotic products making inflammation claims, followed by general skin health, acne, healthy aging, and eczema. These product types have an appeal to many of the large, established cosmetic companies, looking to expand their offerings into new areas.