Create a tea that combines the beverage’s traditional comforts with probiotic benefits that can survive manufacturing.
Tea's popularity is growing, as more consumers–especially adults ranging from older Millennials to Seniors–seek beverages with benefits like support for digestive and immune health, relaxation and energy. In response, tea makers have taken notice and are bringing hot tea infusions with added functionality into a market looking for differentiation.
Quantifying the benefits is key
Because consumers have become skeptical of claims made by brands, and they want maximum transparency over the ingredients in the products that they purchase, quantifying the benefits of the probiotic in the final product is critical. Whether in a powdered form that delivers benefits on-demand, or a traditional format, like a tea bag, stability is the primary concern when considering probiotics for tea applications. Delivery formats can also be challenging. In a tea bag, a larger particle size may be necessary to keep the probiotic in the bag before use and to allow efficient release and dispersion on preparation.
Choosing a spore-forming probiotic ingredient like BC30™, agglomerated into a larger particle size – a format designed especially for tea – is one approach to addressing formulation and preparation challenges. BC30 has a protective shell, allowing it to better survive extreme temperatures, like boiling water. It can also survive through stomach acid until the probiotics arrive in the gut, where they team up with your own bacteria.
Available worldwide, in flavors that include traditional English Breakfast as well as blends with lemon, ginger and other herbal ingredients, the tea is part of a complete line that helps support wellness.
In addition to this launch, BC30 has been featured in a number of offerings from other global hot tea brands, and is the leading probiotic for hot tea applications globally.
The scientists at Kerry’s Global Spore-Forming Probiotic Center of Excellence partnered closely with the customer’s R&D team to quantify probiotic inclusion rates and test for efficacy to ensure that BC30 survived the manufacturing and brewing processes to deliver the strain-specific probiotic benefits being promised to the consumer. Kerry’s capabilities help customers to ensure that products are properly formulated for applications, so that their consumers can be sure they are getting the research-backed benefits they want most.
“Testing for survivability of probiotics in the final product were critical in providing a tea that served up safe and efficacious benefits The experts at Kerry’s Spore-forming Center of Excellence helped us to demonstrate the science behind BC30’s health benefits.”
~ Tea company spokesperson
