The multinational human and pet nutrition company says that after a decade of providing postbiotics for people, it is “perfectly positioned” to advance postbiotics for animal health.
“We know from our own consumer research that nearly half of global pet parents are purchasing pre-, pro- and postbiotics, so consumers are actively seeking these products,” said Caitlin Donohue, global marketing director at ADM.
According to an ADM survey, consumers are gaining an understanding that the gut microbiome is important to maintaining overall wellness for themselves as well as for their pets. The data shows that 71% of U.S. pet owners have purchased prebiotics, probiotics and/or postbiotics for their pet at least once.
“In terms of consumer perception, the term biotic seems to have positive connotations that have fused from the term ‘probiotic’,” Donohue said.
There is some room for growth. Market research firm SPINS says that pet parents have spent close $20 million on pre-and probiotics for their animals in the 52 weeks leading up to Dec. 29, 2024. In comparison, people have spent nearly $1 billion on biotics for themselves during that same period.
ADM has found that 80% of pet parents are willing to spend more money on ingredients that include biotics to be proactive with pet health.
Why postbiotics?
While there is ongoing debate about the best way to define Postbiotics, a consensus definition from the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) described postbiotics as a “preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host”.
Benefits associated with postbiotics include promoting immune health, lowering inflammation, and improving blood sugar regulation, among other applications.
“ADM’s clinical research has shown that most probiotic versions of a microorganism do have very similar benefits to the postbiotic version,” said Lindsay Sumners, director CD&D Health & Wellness, Pet & Animal Wellbeing at ADM. “That is not always the case within the published literature, but so far, in terms of our clinical research, that has really been what we’ve found.”
Although ADM claims many of its postbiotics have similar effects as probiotics, postbiotics are easier to formulate due to their superior stability. They have a shelf life of 24 months to 36 months.
“The process to develop pet formats like soft chews and dental treats can require the inclusion of water, higher temperatures, pressure—conditions that some probiotics might not survive,” Donohue said. “However, these conditions are not an issue for postbiotics. For these reasons, our product portfolio journey has evolved to lean into postbiotics.”
Sumners said that postbiotics are stable and efficacious in a very large variety of pet food formats, which opens them up for formulators to include biotics and capitalize on the efficacious benefits of the microorganisms without confronting stability challenges or limiting themselves to specific finished formats. Postbiotics can be incorporated into a powder in which ingredient stability is relatively easy to achieve.
There are other advantages of formulating with a postbiotic, Sumners said.
“Because it is so stable, you don’t have to include a large percentage of overage [because of die off] like you typically do with a probiotic,” she added.
Digestive health
One of the first areas ADM researched was pet digestive health. Donohue said promoting good digestion for pets is still an important need and top concern among pet parents.
In a 2024 ADM-funded study that appeared in the journal Animals, the addition of heat-treated Bifidobacterium longum, found in the human gastrointestinal tract, combined with Fibersol-2 improved the intestinal health of adult cats impacted by abrupt dietary change.
“When you are identifying a microorganism to determine whether it’s going to be studied as either a probiotic or a postbiotic, typically that bacterial microorganism is isolated from somewhere,” Sumners said. “Some of our ingredients have been isolated from, for example, human breast milk. However, as we do more research and are homing in on species-specific efficacy, we are looking to isolate these microorganisms specifically from cats and dogs.”
ADM said future postbiotic research and applications will include the study of pet atopic dermatitis as well as the oral health of dogs and cats.
