Better-for-you food and beverage innovators are betting big on artificial intelligence to help drive product development, but active ingredients – a different kind of AI – are still steering the ship, according to industry leaders at Future Food Tech San Francisco.
The point became clear in panelists’ responses to the question, “What is most important, AI or AI?” posed by moderator Thomas Grotkjær, partner at Planetary Health Investments, Novo Holdings.
In the panel “The Wellness Wave: Enhancing Health with Functional Food & Beverage Innovations,” R&D experts and legacy players in food and beverage agreed that wellness is being driven by marketing muscle, but rigorous science continues as the driving force behind innovation.
Beyond new ingredient and product formulation, mainstay products like cereal and eggs remain familiar wellness vehicles central to a balanced diet, and companies that sell them are working to get that message out to a new generation of consumers.
Which leads, AI or AI?
Olipop, maker of prebiotic sodas focused on gut health and the microbiome, uses artificial intelligence to drive development of its drinks, but the active ingredients and science behind them remain the key to the company’s innovation, according to Seth Crass, Olipop senior director of Quality, R&D and Regulatory.
Artificial intelligence is illuminating for new developments and scientific methods, but the technology is serving a secondary purpose of bringing science and data closer to consumers.
“The ability for consumers to digest complex scientific information is greater than ever before because of AI, so I think there’s this cyclical loop that’s really happening that’s energizing the ability and accessibility of science and these active ingredients and their use, because consumers now have a better opportunity to understand them,” he said.
Artificial intelligence plays a key role in deploying those active ingredients in products that are engaging for consumers, said Eris Duro, head of Health and Nutrition Supply Chain at Sagentia Innovation, a product development consulting firm.
“The challenge is making those tasty and making sure that they have the outcome that people relate to and understand and want to have over and over again, because otherwise it’s not sustainable,” he said.
Duro reiterated the power of artificial intelligence to help tell functional ingredients’ story, noting the technology’s potential to “help drive consumers to the right sort of behavior.”
Data-driven proof of concept
Technology is helping raise consumer awareness and education, but it’s also helping formulation companies like Kioga prove their ingredients to food manufacturers.
The company uses an advanced AI platform to harness a database of soil-derived microbes to discover strains with anti-inflammatory properties that influence what Kioga describes as the gut-immune-brain axis.
These postbiotics, expected to be released in 2026 for use in food and beverages, “represent the first solution capable of addressing the complete biological pathway from gut to brain,” according to the company.
“We’re actually based on decades worth of research and epidemiological hypotheses, realizing that people in different parts of the world, especially rural parts of the world, have lower instances of chronic disease, lower instances of allergens and autoimmune diseases, and general recognition that this is due to their increased exposure to certain biodiversity,” according to Justin Whitely, cofounder and CEO of Kioga.
For Kioga to get its ingredients into products, it must effectively explain them to food and beverage manufacturers, and it’s using technology and data to do it, Whitely said.
“We’re in the stress-relief food category for our very first ingredient,” he said. “Historically, that’s a little bit challenging because it is a lot of self-reported metrics on how people are feeling.”
Kioga is using hs-CRP (High-sensitivity C-reactive protein) and cytokine testing to show that Kioga’s ingredients are lowering inflammation, according to Whitely.
“Once you get that first proof point, then you go deeper with the latest wearables and get even more objective biomarkers, but it is a progression,” he said. “This is the reality of being a startup. We’d all love to jump to that amazing clinical trial, but we have to get there in baby steps to show that what we’re proposing is indeed working.”
Back to basics on protein and fiber
Educating consumers about the microbiome and gut health is among the biggest challenges of new product developers in the wellness space, but makers of time-tested products like cereal and eggs face a similar hurdle despite their longevity.
WK Kellogg Co approached the messaging with a tongue-in-cheek Super Bowl ad in February featuring William Shatner that used toilet humor to describe the fiber benefits of its Raisin Bran brand cereal.
Positive Nutrition Broadcast Series 2026
Coming up on March 31: The “Performance petfood: Functional ingredients for health & vitality” broadcast. Explore how functional ingredients are powering pet health & wellness, from immunity and digestion to cognition and vitality. Register for free!... Click here
The brand also is going analogue to educate consumers on its fiber benefits labeling on the package, according to Sarah Ludmer, chief wellbeing and sustainable business officer at WK Kellogg Co.
“It’s helping people understand the true benefits of the category,” such as key nutrients and single-digit added sugar, Ludmer said. “We need people to understand these basics.”
