PREBIOTICS: What if we listed them?

Prebiotics are defined as substrates used selectively by host microorganisms and conferring a health benefit. This concept was introduced into research and within the scientific community almost 30 years ago. Since then, these prebiotic substances have attracted considerable attention as possible tools to improve health, via the gut microbiota.

Given the recent rapid expansion of high-resolution microbiome research technologies and the growing understanding of how dietary compounds and nutrients can impact the microbiome, today there is general confusionhighlighted by the research team, as to which substances have real prebiotic effects.

The study, carried out by 8 international experts now proposes a first framework, as complete as possible, composed of the criteria for establishing the status of prebiotic, which provides essential clarity in this rapidly evolving field.

This new recommendation also addresses the many challenges that remain to document and justify the beneficial effects of prebiotics and proposes practical guidelines to better identify prebiotic substances and better evaluate their effects on health.

The researchers also propose a clear scientific protocol to demonstrate the effects of prebiotics, which must meet several essential criteria :

• a prebiotic must be a well-characterized substance;
• provide a measurable health benefit;
• be used selectively by host microorganisms;
• induce measurable effects on the composition or function of the microbiome;
• follow a plausible action process arising from changes in the microbiome and leading to the observed health benefit;
• be safe for the intended indication;
• at least one target host study must have simultaneously demonstrated microbiome modulation and associated health benefit.

This need for validation of the selective use and response of the microbial ecosystem to “prebiotic intervention”

is probably the most important guideline of these recommendations.

However, the authors hope that over time, and based on scientific data, regulatory and commercial approaches for prebiotics will be implemented.

We therefore have a long way to go to understand what prebiotics are and how their use should be justified, but the process is well underway.