Innovation in functional drinks: LifeTop

The probiotic market is spreading; it was originally in dairy (yogurts) and in dietary supplements but it is now developing in bars and fruit drinks. Lesaffre Human Care, proposing yeast probiotics to the food and dietary supplements industry, has worked hard to find a value solution for the drink industry.

Because adding a probiotic yeast in a drink is not an easy task: how do you add Lynside® PRO SCB, by definition an active dry yeast, that can uses sugar and water to develop and grow, in a drink ? If we add it, it will not be stable and will be impossible to offer to the consumer.

The idea is simple: instead of adding Lynside® Pro SCB to the beverage in the bottle, you keep it separated from the liquid until the moment of consumption!

One easy and safe way of doing that is to put the sensitive ingredient in the protective blister of the LifeTop™ Cap! This is why we choose this patented solution from CapAble, a unique bottle closure able to protect the probiotics during the shelf life of the drink from plant to consumer and deliver it when the consumer wants it!

It has two main advantages:

• It really works, it is safe and it gives true protection to the probiotic thanks to the aluminium container.
• Consumers wish to appropriate their own health through some kind of gestures; The idea to open the lid of the cap and push the powder into the drink at the moment of consumption is something that they like. Besides, they trust this kind of delivery system more than if we had invented something to protect the yeast in the drink; finally it gives them control and they like that.

How did the collaboration come about and why did you think it seemed like a good idea?

We targeted the juices and natural drinks market and looked for a delivery system. We found the LifeTop™ Cap and liked the solution. Capable had already worked with probiotics and they knew how to handle them. They had the patented cap and a collaboration with a large cap company to make sure that the cap would be correct during manufacturing, etc ... We were offered to become a LifeTop™ Technology Partner which means that we had to do some feasibility tests: is it possible to fill the cap with our powder? Does it remain stable in the cap? Etc ... In other words make sure that the combination Lynside® PRO SCB and LifeTop™ Cap is a high quality product. At this time, the answers are positive.

What was achieved through the project?

The possibility for us to propose an interesting solution to the natural drinks industry;

How did the project benefit you and CapAble?

It gives us both visibility in a highly competitive market. It allows Lesaffre Human care to approach and propose our Lynside® Pro in drinks with one good solution.

It allows us both to widen the customers potential and get feed backs from the drinks companies on the cap solution.

Why the Lesaffre probiotic yeast in a drink?

Market research from Lesaffre shows a marketing advantage for probiotic yeast in drink compared to probiotic bacteriaes ; basically it shows that consumers relate to yeast as beeing natural and living whereas probiotic ( bacteria) is an abstract and complex product, that they trust because of the science but looks rather like an UFO !

If we explain to the consumer that yeast can be probiotic, they like the idea and accept that it could be in products where yeast can be culturally compatible: juices drinks, cereals and even beers. That is a major marketing advantage: a marketing manager can really build a nice story with our Lynside® pro SCB ( inquire for the complete marketing study).