With increasing awareness of the benefits of a diverse, plant-rich diet on maintaining a healthy gut microbiome, the functional plant-based foods market is ripe for innovation in gut-friendly solutions that can support digestive, immune, cognitive health and beyond. The Plant Base speaks to the experts to find out what’s next for this rapidly growing segment.

Gut health has been a focal point for the functional food industry in recent years, particularly as awareness of the gut microbiome and its role in supporting overall health and wellbeing has permeated popular culture.

From the success of personalised nutrition service Zoe – which promises to increase the diversity of good bacteria in your gut through use of its test kits and tailored nutrition programmes – to the boom in gut health-focused books and TV shows, like the popular 2024 Netflix documentary Hack Your Health: The Secrets of Your Gut, gut health has expanded beyond the interests of nutrition aficionados and into the mainstream.

With plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables, grains and legumes providing a rich source of gut-friendly fibre, the plant-based food and beverage industry is poised to grab a slice of the action and capitalise on this rising consumer interest.

Myriam Snaet, head of market intelligence and consumer insights at Beneo, said: “Increasing consumer interest in preventative health measures and growing understanding of the impact the gut has on the wider body are both fuelling digestive health product development”.

She noted that interest in plant-based food and beverages can often be paired with interest in gut health and digestive system support, pointing out that initially, the plant-based drinks category attracted those who had difficulty digesting lactose.

“Now, however, the segment is also drawing in those who care for their digestive health as part of a healthy lifestyle. Beneo’s latest research shows that 42% of consumers see prebiotics as an appealing claim on food packaging, whereas this rises to 59% for those interested in plant-based drinks.”

The biotic boom

A vast wealth of dietary solutions is available for those looking to improve their gut health, claiming to support a range of positive health outcomes related to boosting the gut microbiome’s good bacteria. Solutions in this realm often fall into the prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics categories.

Prebiotics, such as beta-glucan and inulin, can be found in a range of plant-based, fibre-rich foods including whole grains, soya beans, bananas and onions. They provide food for the microorganisms living inside the gut and can encourage the growth of healthy bacteria.

Probiotics, meanwhile, are the live microbes themselves that flourish in the gut, contributing to a diverse microbiome and in turn assisting with digestive health, immune support and beyond.

They can be found in fermented plant-based foods and beverages such as kimchi, kombucha and sauerkraut, soya-based products such as tempeh and miso, and dairy products like kefir and yogurt. Many plant-based dairy yogurts also contain beneficial live cultures thanks to traditional fermentation processes.

Finally, postbiotics – a category that has more recently begun to gain traction in the dietary supplements and functional foods world – are the byproducts of prebiotics and probiotics. They are bioactive molecules, created following digestion of prebiotics and probiotics, with research increasingly highlighting various health benefits linked to these compounds including fighting off harmful bacteria and supporting metabolism.

“According to Health Focus International, high costs, drug shortages and safety concerns around prescription medication have fuelled the resurgence of food as medicine and continue to drive consumer interest in medicinal ingredients like prebiotics,” said Beneo’s Snaet.

She explained that Beneo’s chicory root fibre ingredients, Orafti Inulin and Oligofructose, enable manufacturers to add natural prebiotic fibres that will improve taste and texture, while allowing for fat and sugar reduction in products across key applications such as altdairy, cereals, bakery and confectionery.

“Research on prebiotics has expanded significantly in recent years, providing new insights and further substantiation on their diverse effects on gut health and overall wellbeing,” she told The Plant Base. “It has delved deeper into the mechanisms by which prebiotics exert their effects on the gut microbiome and how this is related to the health benefits conferred on the host. A lot of research is ongoing with chicory root fibre in the field of emerging science.”

According to Snaet, Beneo’s chicory root fibres have been shown to support a healthy microbiota, and the selective increase in probiotic Bifidobacteria, in more than 50 human intervention studies.

NutriLeads, based in the Netherlands, produces plant-based precision prebiotic fibre ingredients that can be added to various functional foods, beverages and dietary supplements. Its flagship ingredient, BeniCaros, is made from upcycled carrot pomace – a byproduct of juicing. With a serving size as low as 300mg, it can be formulated into a diverse range of product formats.

Joana Carneiro-Wakefield, NutriLeads’ CEO, said: “Precision prebiotics have the right molecular complexity to selectively nourish beneficial gut bacteria, a process supported by strong scientific evidence. Precision prebiotics like Benicaros target specific families of bacteria found in most people’s microbiomes. This targeted approach ensures consistent support for gut health across diverse gut microbiome compositions, making the benefits the same for every person.”

The ingredient is a polysaccharide, scientifically known as rhamnogalacturonan-I (RG-I), extracted from the carrot pomace. Carneiro-Wakefield explained that NutriLeads’ founders initially discovered RG-I’s immune benefits while studying ginseng, but sourcing it from ginseng was costly and unsustainable.

“Benicaros is a precision prebiotic designed with a unique molecular complexity to selectively nourish beneficial gut bacteria, increasing their abundance and stimulating short-chain fatty acid production for a balanced gut ecosystem and better overall health,” she continued. “Unlike many prebiotics, Benicaros works through cooperative fermentation (cross-feeding) among specific gut bacteria, ensuring consistent benefits across diverse microbiomes.”

Carneiro-Wakefield pointed out that in pre-clinical and clinical trials, Benicaros supplementation was shown to increase the abundance of beneficial gut bacteria, including Bifidobacterium and anti-inflammatory species, regardless of baseline microbiome differences.

“It reduced cold symptom severity by 20-33%, duration by 28-43% and improved quality of life by 10–30%,” she pointed out. “Additionally, Benicaros accelerated protective immune responses during a mild rhinovirus challenge, enhancing the body’s natural antiviral defences.”

Elsewhere, ingredients giant ADM is forecasting increased innovation in probiotics and postbiotics across the plant-based category as consumers seek products that can support not only digestion, but healthy ageing, mood, skin health and more – all areas increasingly being linked to a healthy gut.

“With burgeoning consumer segments, such as GLP-1 users, heralding in an era of new nutritional support needs, we anticipate a surge of plant-based products with biotic inclusion entering the marketplace,” said Vaughn DuBow, senior director, product portfolio marketing, health and wellness at ADM.

He explained that ADM sees this innovation impacting all plant-based formats, with a particular emphasis on plant-based and blended dairy and snack categories in the years ahead. Formats like on-the-go drinkable yogurts for digestive support can support high protein content and diversity, he added.

ADM’s own plant-based drink concept, inspired by drinkable yogurts, taps the company’s functional ProFam Pea 580 protein ingredient alongside its Bifidobacterium longum CECT7347 heat-treated postbiotic (HT-ES1). DuBow highlighted new research demonstrating it may support overall gut and digestive health, with the potential of supporting reduced bloating.

“Postbiotics and spore-forming probiotics are crucial for bringing added health benefits to plant-based products,” DuBow said. “These resilient solutions can retain efficacy through tough formulation environments, such as high-water content and high heat, commonly associated with dairy and meat alternatives and plant-based active nutrition formulations.”

The company has also developed a protein bar concept combining its soy and pea proteins

with ADM and Matsutani’s Fibersol ingredient, a prebiotic dietary fibre.

“Fibersol is another seamless addition to plant-based formulations, as it is highly soluble, heat-, acid-, shear- and freeze/thaw-stable, along with having outstanding clarity and low viscosity,”DuBow continued. “[It] does not impact taste or texture, while also being suitable for individuals with digestive sensitivities as a low-FODMAP ingredient, classified by Monash University.”

Product innovation

No longer confined to the world of supplements and health food stores, functional food and beverage products for gut health support have taken on a life of their own, spanning myriad product categories and appearing all over major supermarkets – from the beverage aisles to the snacking segments.

There is a growing awareness of the gut health benefits provided by consuming 30 different types of plants each week, as demonstrated in research from the American Gut Project. Additionally, new research published in January 2025 by the University of Trento, Italy, analysed biological samples from 21,561 individuals (vegans, vegetarians and omnivores), with the study results finding that vegans had the healthiest gut microbiome, followed by vegetarians and omnivores.

Food brands have a unique opportunity to tap into this growing awareness by crafting plant-based products that are naturally rich in a diverse range of wholesome ingredients.

Jon Walsh, co-founder and CEO of ‘gut-friendly’ food brand Bio&Me, said: “Our co-founder Megan Rossi, and other gut health specialists, all concur that 30 is the magic number of different plants you should look to consume each week from what’s known as the ‘Super Six’: vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, seeds and wholegrains”.

Co-founder Rossi is a renowned gut health specialist, known as The Gut Health Doctor, who joined forces with Walsh to create a line of granolas, porridges, mueslis, kefir yogurts and flapjacks that aim to ‘make gut health deliciously easy’.

Most of the brand’s range (excluding the dairy products) are naturally plant-based, including the most recently launched flapjack line.

“We really wanted to shake up the cereal bar category as some of the products stocked in

supermarkets are not as healthy as they first seem,” explained Walsh. “This is because they frequently include added sugars. We’ve seen ‘healthier’ popular bars on the market contain as much as 30% sugar.”

He also observed that brands often use “exotic sounding names,” such as ‘coconut sugar’

and ‘brown rice syrup’ to disguise that they contain added sugars. According to Rossi, these

ingredients are still treated like “standard sugar” in the body, irrespective of the source.

Bio&Me’s flapjacks – available in Toffee Apple, Superberry and Cocoa Hazelnut varieties – each contain at least nine plant-based foods, with ingredients such as wholegrain oats, dates, almonds, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, and even seaweed.

“Each bar contains just 5-6% of naturally occurring sugars,” Walsh said. “The aim is to provide a moreish wholesome snack, whenever and wherever you need one, a snack that will help keep your gut microbes happy too.”

In the beverage sector, Hip Pop is leveraging the demand for functional products that support gut health with its vegan-friendly range of kombuchas and ‘Living Sodas,’ a prebiotic soda line with live cultures.

Emma Thackray, Hip Pop’s co-founder, said: “Clean label and transparency of supply chain and ingredient origins is being valued by the consumer and this is growing – particularly in the last 12 months with the public discussion around ultra-processed foods”.

“Based on the research and trends we’re seeing across our own customer base, there’s definitely an increasing desire for functional drinks to support gut health, with a number of launches in this space throughout 2024. We’ve seen frequency and rate of sale of traditional ‘unhealthy’ soft drinks decline – something that would have been unthinkable only a couple of years ago.”

The Living Soda range aims to provide a healthy alternative to traditional sugary and artificially sweetened fizzy drinks. They are packed with a quarter of the RDA of fibre per can, plus apple cider vinegar and live cultures to support the gut, and come in Tropical Peach, Ginger and Turmeric, and Pink Grapefruit flavours.

Additionally, its kombuchas are brewed traditionally with loose leaf tea and a kombucha

culture, with a probiotic bacteria added to the drinks. Flavours include Ginger and Yuzu, Apple and Elderflower, Blueberry and Ginger, and Strawberry and Pineapple, as well as limited-edition seasonal offerings like its Gingerbread Fizz.

It also offers a CBD kombucha in three fruity flavour varieties, infused with live cultures alongside 15mg of CBD, harnessing multiple functional beverage trends in one product line.

“We want all our drinks – both the soda and the kombucha – to be low in sugar and calories,” said Thackray. “We do not use sweeteners, neither artificial nor the ‘natural’ ones such as stevia or erythritol. Sweeteners always leave a very distinctly bitter aftertaste, which is impossible to mask.”

She acknowledged the significant challenge of reducing sugar and eliminating sweeteners while achieving a great taste, adding that each drink produced by Hip Pop takes “months to achieve the right balance between the small amount of natural sugar we do use, along with the fruits and flavours, to create just the right amount of sweetness”.

“Our drinks are less sweet than either traditional pop or diets, zeros or ‘faux healthy stuff’ with sweeteners added, but the feedback we get from customers is that they love this – and once they’ve tried our natural tasting drinks they keep coming back for more,” Thackray enthused.

Alongside new innovative product formats, one of the most traditionally relied upon methods of getting gut-friendly cultures into the diet is through fermented vegetables. The Plant Base expects to see growing interest in these types of age-old, naturally vegan products as consumer preferences shift toward desire for minimally processed, natural and organic products.

US brand, Flanagan Farm, aims to increase accessibility to raw, organic fermented foods. It launched five flavours – Classic, Kimchi, Beet, Dill and Roasted Garlic – of organic sauerkraut in a convenient pouch format last year.

Jorge Azevedo, CEO of Flanagan Farm’s parent company Fermented Food Holdings, said: “If you look on grocery shelves, you’ll see $9 jars of sauerkraut and you’ll see non-organic more affordable options. Now with Flanagan Farm, consumers can get pouches of organic kraut for less than $5.”

“It’s estimated that 15% of US consumers are already incorporating fermented foods into their diets; we knew there was strong existing consumer interest with room to grow.”

The brand’s sauerkraut is fully fermented and unpasteurised to keep in the gut-friendly probiotics and each bag has a vent on the back to let air out, designed to enable the product to continue fermenting and lock in more live cultures.

“You’ll notice other brands use vinegar, preservatives or cook their products to make them

last long in the pantry,” said Azevedo. “Our brine prevents bad bacteria, such as mould and yeast from growing, while the good bacteria thrive. These good bacteria propagate in the presence of food, such as the starches found in cabbage.”

He added: “As the bacteria digests the starch in this natural fermentation process, they create lactic acid that flavours and naturally preserves the sauerkraut. The secret to our probiotic-rich kraut is giving it the right amount of time to soak up all the nutrients.”

Azevedo pointed to the “undeniable link” between veganism and plant-based diets, and

the shift toward more natural, whole and minimally processed foods that provide gut health support.

“People are increasingly wanting full transparency with the foods they eat. They want to know where their food comes from, how it was made, as well as how it could positively impact their wellbeing and the world,” he concluded. “As such, seeking out plant-based options and fermented foods are aligned.”