Friends who care about intestinal health may be familiar with the term "Prebiotics". Prebiotics, to put it simply, are the "Food" for beneficial intestinal bacteria. The body can not absorb use, harmful bacteria do not like, except it beneficial bacteria "Soft spot" . As a dietary supplement, prebiotics can have a beneficial effect on the host by selectively stimulating the growth or activity of one or a few bacteria in the colon . As a major health industry in one, prebiotics market in the future of how to develop?

        "The best time" in the prebiotic market

        Digestive health is one of the hot trends in the development of the food and beverage industry . The domestic market share of products with digestive health claims has exceeded the global average . It can be seen how much Chinese consumers attach importance to digestive health.

        After being taken by the human body, some prebiotics can pass through the stomach and small intestine without being digested, and directly reach the large intestine , selectively stimulating the "indigenous people" in the intestine-probiotics, and multiplying more beneficial bacteria to maintain intestinal health.

        Compared with traditional sugars, prebiotics have relatively higher profits, and have higher technical thresholds and market barriers. With the functionality of food, the function of the beverage as well as the rapid development of nutritional products, prebiotics market capacity of rapid expansion , the competition grew more intense. Data show that the global prebiotics production from 2015 years of 53.46 million tonnes in 2019 year 64.65 million tons, a CAGR of about to 4.78 % is expected by 2026 will increase to 865,500 tons . 2019, global prebiotic market size of about 140.29 billion yuan, is expected to 2019-2026 between the years of compound annual growth rate of approximately is 4.07 % , to 2026 end of the year to reach 185.48 billion yuan scale .

Chart: Output Value and Growth Rate of Prebiotics in the Global Market (2015-2026 )

        In 2018, the global prebiotic market was led by Europe, and China was the second largest market. In 2019, the output value of domestic prebiotics is about 2.407 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 3.814 billion yuan by 2025. The compound growth rate for 2019-2026 is about 6.80%. On 2020 Nian the first quarter announcement of earnings view , COVID-19 food affecting ingredients companies is relatively small , most of the company's performance only small decline, even a small part of the company's revenue also slightly have to grow. In general , COVID-19 has led to a decline in the prices of raw materials, which will reduce the price of prebiotic products in 2020 , but its production will still maintain a positive growth , which shows that the prospects are huge .

Chart: Output Value and Growth Rate of Prebiotics in the Chinese Market ( 2015-2026 )

        Prebiotics are popular , do you really understand this market?

        Compared with the century-old development history of probiotics, the history of prebiotics is much shorter. The concept of prebiotics was first born in 1995 and was proposed by Gibson and Roberfroid . Their definition of prebiotics in their papers is: "Prebiotics are indigestible and can selectively act on specific intestinal flora. Food ingredients that maintain and improve the health of the host."

        In 2010 , the International Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics once again defined prebiotics as : "Selectively fermented components can produce specific changes in the composition and activity of gastrointestinal microbes, thereby benefiting the health of the host."

        Prebiotics widely exists in our daily food , including functional oligosaccharides, indigestible polysaccharides and sugar alcohols . Prebiotic substances of different structure, even different degree of polymerization oligosaccharide, promoting action and mechanism of action of the bacteria are present differences. Currently, the main prebiotics in the world include fructo-oligosaccharides , galacto-oligosaccharides , inulin, polydextrose, isomalt-oligosaccharide and resistant dextrin.

Table: Production growth trend of main types of prebiotics ( 2015-2026 ) (tons)

Chart: Global Market Share of Major Types of Prebiotics in 2019

        Where FOS is the most studied, the most widely used of one prebiotic in the world, prebiotic market in order to account for the largest proportion of 18.30% of the share . Our prebiotics development process relatively late start , oligofructose also is a high degree of popularity . 1990 years, public letter to the Ministry of Industry Standard "functional oligosaccharides General technical regulations" in the proposed functional oligosaccharides can be directly used as food ingredients; in 1997, " GB16740-1997 health (functional) food general standard" low Fructose is listed as a health food raw material; as of August 2013, the National Health and Family Planning Commission clarified that oligofructose can be added to infant milk powder as a nutritional fortifier , and can also be added to ordinary food as a food ingredient. The difference is that the former requires the purity of oligofructose to be more than 95% , while the latter has no hard and fast rules on purity.

        In contrast, resistant dextrin production is not to FOS half, but the growth rate was the highest . At present, resistant dextrin has been approved for use in more than 40 countries including China, Europe, the United States, and Japan . In Japan, resistant dextrin as a fortification agent been widely applied, MHLW recognize it as the government specified health food material; the US Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) approval for the general safety of its substance (GRAS), and no Intake limit: In 2012 , the Ministry of Health Announcement No. 16 listed resistant dextrin as a common food, which can be added to various foods in unlimited amounts.

        Prebiotics help the road to product upgrades

        Usually, we rarely see the words "prebiotics" on the ingredient labels of products, but more often found are galactooligosaccharides , fructooligosaccharides , inulin and so on. Regular consumption of prebiotics is beneficial to human nutrition and health. Many companies have begun to add relevant ingredients to beverages, candies, pastries and health foods to enhance the functional attributes of their products .

        Food and Beverage        

        Based on gut health consumer demand and attention , prebiotic positively into the food and drink of the mainstream market, such as grain mills introduced plants benefit raw Yuan eight Jennifer Chia breakfast cereal powder , prebiotic Ejiao Crystal date, add chrysanthemum chicory source of dietary fiber ; British Chescots of sUPER gUT porridge series also joined 6g plant prebiotic ; targeting super ingredients and trends intestinal nutrition and health, the Keep Moving pushed out of the first refrigeration pack healthy snacks bagged intestinal Gutzy , each pack probiotic The raw fiber content is about 6g .

        In addition to being combined with food , the water- soluble properties of prebiotics also allow it to successfully enter the ingredient list of beverages. Such as Australia Kreol flagship of prebiotic bubble drink; Coca-Cola in the Chinese market a new Sprite fiber+ and the new hope of the V US dietary fiber water, add the resistant dextrin; an upgraded version of pulsation, Jianlibao micro bubble water and forest's vitality burning tea, is to improve intestinal health by polydextrose; the name of benevolence launched roses soda and dual -fiber soda , the former adding a Xylo , which is based on the traditional soda on with resistant dextrin and polydextrose, two water-soluble dietary fibers, gives the product more health attributes.

        Infant Formula Milk Powder        

        In China, one of the most important application areas of prebiotics is infant formula milk powder, which is an essential nutrient fortifier during the growth of infants and young children. Currently, allowing international infant Ⅰ beneficial to add milk powder in Prebiotics have FOS and GOS , added in an amount up to 5.9%, the minimum is only 0.388%. Abbott classic Amy force , Wyeth Kai Fu Blue Diamond , Mead Johnson Platinum Rui , Nestle Zhi Bao force more refined world-renowned brands pregnant women, infant formula milk powder are added prebiotic , helps maintain normal bowel function, Improve constipation .

        Nutrition and Health Food        

        Generally speaking, a functional ingredient in health food can be high up to 90% , can fully reflect the prebiotic advantage and make use of. Since health food is non-medicine, it is used by a wide range of people. Among them, the addition of prebiotics makes the product more suitable for people with intestinal problems. Further, since the benefits of prebiotics have features that are not digested, almost does not affect blood lipids, blood glucose, it is also a high blood cholesterol, high blood sugar, preferably sweet hypertension additives, can replace sucrose, glucose and the like .

        A " giant " and also a "new star" in the prebiotic market

        The improvement of consumer health concepts and the emphasis on the “intestinal health” project in national policy planning have made prebiotics and other functional ingredients that have the characteristics of regulating intestinal flora, low blood sugar index, low sugar, and lowering blood pressure and blood lipids ushered in " The best time". The prebiotic market has attracted the attention of many companies. Shandong Starlight So True Biological technology Co.,Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "So True"), established in 2017, is one of the new entrants.

        So True is affiliated to Shandong Starlight Sugar Group with a registered capital of 120 million yuan. After more than ten years of unremitting struggle, Shandong Starlight Sugar Group has a raw sugar processing capacity of 1 million tons, a corn deep processing capacity of 1.2 million tons, a bonded and storage capacity of 2 million tons, and four major delivery warehouses with the most complete bulk commodities. As well as a logistics company with a complete range of vehicles, its "Xingyou" brand sugar series has ranked first in quality for several consecutive years.

        As the so-called "back to the big tree is good for the cool", So True uses the group's bulk sugar such as cane sugar and starch sugar as raw materials. Science and technology companies are committed to creating a biotechnology industry chain that maintains human nutrition and health and maintains the balance of human micro-ecological. As far as the entire industry of prebiotics is concerned, the concentration of the global prebiotics industry is in the middle position, and market education has a certain foundation. It is undoubtedly the best opportunity for the newly entered So True.

       · R&D advantages to build core competitiveness

       So True collaboration with the State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, internationally renowned professors peer team of experts for technical support, to attract more than 10 people among doctoral students, graduate 20 people, with more than entry-developed intellectual property rights;

        · Industrialization layout to achieve precise services          

        Focus on the industrialization of functional food ingredients and the promotion and application of production technology for the micro-ecological health business, to meet customer needs as the orientation, to achieve the health and happiness of thousands of households as the lofty mission, and to focus on the research of nutrition, flora and health products , Implement "customized" precise services, and advocate "green", "organic" and "healthy" life;

        · Diversified development to meet various needs          

        So True is the first to take prebiotics as the core. The series of products include fructo-oligosaccharides , resistant dextrin, galacto-oligosaccharides , isomalto-oligosaccharide and various customized complex sugars, etc. , which can be widely used in infant food , probiotics, and beverages. Dairy products, baked goods, nutrition and health products, pet feed, health wine and other fields , further increase the research and development of functional sugar and the transformation of results .