Digestive health has become a defining priority for pet parents. As the humanization of pets continues to shape purchasing decisions, owners increasingly expect their pet food, treats, and supplements to support the same wellness outcomes they seek for themselves. Nowhere is this more apparent than in gut health, now widely regarded as a cornerstone of overall pet wellbeing.

This shift has fueled rapid innovation across the entire biotics category. Probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics are all attracting formulation interest as brands compete to differentiate with credible, science-backed claims. But as the category matures, a new challenge has emerged: ensuring these ingredients can survive the ‘ruff and tumble’ realities of commercial pet food production and still deliver on their promise by the time they reach the food bowl.

Read on as we reveal what's got pet food producers hot under the collar, and the solutions that can help them support gut health and keep pets thriving.

Gut health innovation meets manufacturing reality

Source: Pekic/iStockphoto.com

As many pet food brands know, strong science alone does not guarantee a strong product. Today's pet food brands must balance scientific credibility with product quality, palatability, and the flexibility to support diverse formats, from kibble and wet food to treats and supplements. Many gut health ingredients, however, were not originally designed with these commercial production demands in mind.

Extrusion, retort processing, and baking all expose ingredients to heat, pressure, moisture, and other conditions that can compromise the integrity and performance of sensitive biotic ingredients. Probiotics, in particular, have played an important role in driving gut health innovation, but their reliance on live, viable organisms means maintaining potency through processing and shelf-life calls for additional testing, specialized handling, and careful formulation planning. As brands expand into new pet food formats and diet types, the market is seeking ingredients that combine scientific credibility, with manufacturing reliability.  

Enter postbiotics: Science meets stability

As pet food formulators search for ways to pair functional performance with process viability, postbiotics have moved into the spotlight. These inanimate, non-living microorganisms and their associated metabolites, provide gut health benefits that don’t depend on maintaining a live culture through processing and storage. ^[1],[2] This distinction offers meaningful advantages in processing stability, shelf-life consistency, and formulation flexibility compared with live microbial solutions.

For manufacturers, this opens the door to incorporating microbiome-supporting ingredients without many of the constraints tied to viability testing, refrigeration, or diet-dependent performance. As a result, postbiotics are increasingly viewed not merely as another entry in the biotics category, but as a practical bridge between promising gut health science and commercially viable products.

LB Fermentate HF: Built for pets, and the brands that feed them

dsm-firmenich's LB Fermentate HF illustrates how manufacturing-ready postbiotics can make all the difference. Developed using two proprietary Lactobacillus strains, LB Fermentate HF is a next-generation postbiotic solution built specifically for the demands of modern pet food production.

First, and most importantly, it’s a postbiotic solution created for processing-proof performance. LB Fermentate HF is designed to retain its functional integrity through the rigors of extrusion, retort, and baking processes, while maintaining performance across an extended shelf life. Unlike many probiotic solutions, it requires no refrigeration, no viability testing, and shows no diet dependency, giving brands confidence that the gut support built into the formula at the plant is still there when the product reaches the pet.

LB Fermentate HF equally stands out because it’s built on Lactobacillus, one of the most familiar and trusted bacteria genera in the supplement market. Compared with postbiotic solutions derived from less familiar sources, such as yeast, this recognition can translate into a stronger ingredient story that resonates with increasingly label-savvy pet parents.

Speaking of labels, LB Fermentate HF is primed to appear across a wide range of pack-types, from daily food to treats and supplements. Its proprietary ECHO™ technology produces a stabilized, high-quality, palatable powder suited to diverse formats, giving brands the flexibility to expand their portfolios and respond to emerging trends across the pet wellness space. 

Science-backed credibility

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LB Fermentate HF is backed by more than a century of microbiome science and was the most cited postbiotic in the landmark 2021 ISAPP consensus definition of postbiotics, supported by over 40 published studies.^[3] A growing body of research continues to build on this evidence base, exploring how LB Fermentate HF may support several important aspects of pet health. 

For example, recent studies point to improvements in microbiome composition and stability—even during periods of environmental challenge—over just a five-week course of supplementation.^[4],[5],[6] Findings from studies focusing on resilience in a challenging gut environment also support LB Fermentate HF’s contribution to intestinal health and digestive resilience, helping to strengthen natural gut defenses and support healthier stool quality.^[7]

The ingredient's benefits also extend beyond simple digestive wellness. By supporting the gut-immune axis, LB Fermentate HF helps maintain a healthy immune system, an effect explored through research into intestinal mucosal immune function in mice and weaned pigs.^[8],[9] Across both studies, animals supplemented with LB Fermentate HF displayed stronger mucosal resilience to infectious agents, lower inflammation and reduced need for mucosal repair following infection.^[10],[11] Because the gut-immune relationship is conserved across mammals, this research offers valuable insight into how the same mechanisms may translate to immune support in dogs and cats.

Gut barrier health and pet stress reduction are two other areas of active research interest. A recent study^[12] has shown that during a thunderstorm simulation, dogs taking the LB Fermentate HF supplement showed significantly lower heart rate reactivity—20.6 bpm lower versus placebo—and tended to have lower cortisol responses. Taken together, these findings indicate that LB Fermentate HF delivers benefits beyond gut microbiota balance, supporting behavioral wellbeing and stress resilience in dogs.

Cutting-edge gut health science – translated into real solutions

As pet parents continue to prioritize digestive wellness and demand credible, science-backed solutions, the brands best positioned to succeed will be those that can translate promising research into products that perform reliably on a commercial scale. For wet and dry pet food, functional treat, and supplement manufacturers looking to strengthen their gut health offering without adding operational complexity, LB Fermentate HF offers a perfect starting point: a solution built for pets, and for the brands that feed them.

Learn more about LB Fermentate HF and how it can support your next product innovation here: https://www.dsm-firmenich.com/en/businesses/taste-texture-health/markets-products/pets/lb-fermentate-hf-eu.html?utm_source=petfood-processing&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=lb_fermentate_hf_awareness&utm_term=petfood_us&utm_content=product_07102025&utm_vehicle=tth-petfood-lb-fermentate-hf-advertorial-july

[1] Salminen S, Collado MC, Endo A, et al. The International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on the definition and scope of postbiotics. Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 2021;18(9):649-667. doi:10.1038/s41575-021-00440-6

[2] Zhao, Xinjie, Shuai Liu, Sumin Li, Wen Jiang, Jingjun Wang, Jianxin Xiao, Tianyu Chen et al. “Unlocking the power of postbiotics: A revolutionary approach to nutrition for humans and animals.” Cell Metabolism 36, no. 4 (2024): 725-744.

[3] Salminen, Seppo, Maria Carmen Collado, Akihito Endo, Colin Hill, Sarah Lebeer, Eamonn MM Quigley, Mary Ellen Sanders et al. “The International Scientific Association of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP) consensus statement on the definition and scope of postbiotics.” Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology 18, no. 9 (2021): 649-667.

[4] Koziol SA, Oba PM, Soto-Diaz K, et al. Effects of a Lactobacillus fermentation product on the fecal characteristics, fecal microbial populations, immune function, and stress markers of adult dogs. Journal of Animal Science. 2023;101. doi:10.1093/jas/skad160

[5] Churchill, Helen, Brian Klein, Anish Amara, Erik Eckhardt, Anne Sophie Boucard, and Matthew Hayward. “Modulation of feline gut microbiome by diet and biotic supplementation.” Poster presented at AIChE International Conference on Microbiome Engineering (ICME), American Institute of Chemical Engineers, Boston, MA, November 13, 2024. 

[6]  Eckhardt E, Andreu S, Cereghetti D, Tamasi B, Boucard A-S, Landsberg G, Milanese A, Klein B, Pagani E, and van den Berg M. Dietary supplementation of a Lactobacillus postbiotic modulates acute stress responses and impacts temporal variation in the gut microbiome of dogs. Manuscript submitted.

[7]   Eckhardt E, Andreu S, Cereghetti D, Tamasi B, Boucard A-S, Landsberg G, Milanese A, Klein B, Pagani E, and van den Berg M. Dietary supplementation of a Lactobacillus postbiotic modulates acute stress responses and impacts temporal variation in the gut microbiome of dogs. Manuscript submitted.

[8] Warda AK, de Almeida Bettio PH, Hueston CM, Di Benedetto G, Clooney AG, Hill C. Oral Administration of Heat-Treated Lactobacilli Modifies the Murine Microbiome and Reduces Citrobacter Induced Colitis. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2020;11. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00069.

[9] Xu X, Duarte ME, Kim SW. Postbiotic effects of Lactobacillus fermentate on intestinal health, mucosa-associated microbiota, and growth efficiency of nursery pigs challenged with F18+Escherichia coli. Journal of Animal Science. 2022;100(8). doi:10.1093/jas/skac210.

[10] Warda AK, de Almeida Bettio PH, Hueston CM, Di Benedetto G, Clooney AG, Hill C. Oral Administration of Heat-Treated Lactobacilli Modifies the Murine Microbiome and Reduces Citrobacter Induced Colitis. Frontiers in Microbiology. 2020;11. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.00069.

[11] Xu X, Duarte ME, Kim SW. Postbiotic effects of Lactobacillus fermentate on intestinal health, mucosa-associated microbiota, and growth efficiency of nursery pigs challenged with F18+Escherichia coli. Journal of Animal Science. 2022;100(8). doi:10.1093/jas/skac210.

[12]  Eckhardt E, Andreu S, Cereghetti D, Tamasi B, Boucard A-S, Landsberg G, Milanese A, Klein B, Pagani E, and van den Berg M. Dietary supplementation of a Lactobacillus postbiotic modulates acute stress responses and impacts temporal variation in the gut microbiome of dogs. Manuscript submitted.