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Postbiotics

 

Project Background

ISAPP defines postbiotics as a “preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host.  They could be comprised of inactivated microbial cells with or without metabolites or cell components.  The postbiotic does not have to be derived from a probiotic in order to be a postbiotic with a health benefit.

Project Description

Since postbiotics is an emerging area globally with few published science-based studies, PepsiCo is looking to develop or adapt existing methodologies and validation protocols for postbiotics to support functional gut health claims. We are looking to develop postbiotics from plant-based, specifically oat, rice, bean, and potato-based fermentations using organisms such as lactic acid bacteria, yeast, and/or potentially fungi to deliver benefits to gut health.

Key Success Criteria

We are scouting for differentiated methodologies, technologies, and/or model systems to address the challenges below.

  • Screening methodologies to identify postbiotics that deliver gut health benefits.
  • Either established or new metabolite identification and screening methodologies for pre-validation, validation, and monitoring of metabolite production during fermentation.
  • Strategies to establish pre-clinical studies for postbiotic functionality (analytical testing, in vitro models, etc.)
  • Strategies to ensure batch-to-batch metabolite production consistency during fermentation. Quick turnaround methods to ensure consistent postbiotic production from fermentation batch to batch.

 

Must-Have Requirements:

  • Development of postbiotic identification methods should take no longer than 4-6 months and be focused on analysis from oat, rice, bean, and potato-based fermentations.
  • For postbiotics pre-clinical studies, preferred to be adaptation of existing models applied to postbiotics produced from plant-based fermentations.
  • Development and/or adaptation of an existing method(s) should be able to be applied for postbiotic production at commercial scale.  The method should be quick turn-around, easy to conduct in a commercial facility, and not require highly specialized equipment to allow for the monitoring of postbiotic production consistency from fermentation batch to batch.

 

Preferred Requirements:

  • Adaptation of currently available metabolite identification methods to be able to analyze metabolites from plant-based fermentation
  • Partner has strong technical capabilities in developing and screening plant-based fermentations for gut health functional benefits.

 

Approaches Not of Interest

Novel method/technology/model systems that will take 6+ months to validate.

Preferred Collaboration Type

PepsiCo is open to a range of collaboration types

Resources Available when collaborating with PepsiCo

  • Dedicated project team is available starting from proof of concept to bringing this to market at a massive scale in both foods and beverage format
  • Funding: Potential project funding is available up to $25K-$100K USD.

 

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