As with all foods, kombucha brewers are legally required to include nutritional information on their bottles and cans. The labels allow us to see the amount of calories and sugar in each brand. Fermented beverages like kefir and kombucha will often mention “gut health” or probiotic content. At the recent Stanford University Fermented Food Conference I spoke with two scientists about the accuracy, and even legality, of these claims.

When “Added Sugar” disclosures don’t add up

Breanna Metras has studied the nutrient quality and microbial contents of commercially fermented beverages in the United States. Sugar-sweetened beverages are the leading source of added sugar in the American diet, contributing to health problems such as metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Fermented beverages such as kombucha, kefir, and probiotic sodas are marketed as healthier alternatives. However, despite the increasing populatory of these fermented drinks, it’s not known how many of these fermented beverages contain significant amount of added sugar, potentially aligning them with the traditional cola’s and other sugar (or high fructose corn syrup) sweetened beverages.

Breanna is conducting a comprehensive analysis of 735 commercially available fermented beverages available across the USA, including 423 brands of kombucha, 157 kefir, 120 probiotic sodas, 22 water kefir, and 13 tepache. These beverages were assessed for the amount of sodium, total carbohydrates, total sugars, and added sugars on a per serving basis. Products were also assessed for health claims and stated microbial ingredients.

We found that most products were generally healthy in terms of amount of sodium compared to the recommended, the dietary recommendations for Americans, but that the total amount of carbohydrates and added sugars was not consistent, both in the kombucha category, as well as the fermented beverages as a whole. So it begs the question, are these products being analyzed accurately in terms of added sugar content, and do we need to give more attention to them in terms of labeling them as a healthy beverage or a sugar-sweetened beverage.

Truth in advertising

Breanna’s research had previously focused on kefir. Her doctoral dissertation compared the microbial content of commercially available and home-made kefirs. She highlighted the misleading information and health claims on some brands of kefir.

rRNA sequencing revealed significant microbial labeling inaccuracies and culturing techniques demonstrated there were fewer live microorganisms present at the time of opening than what the labels claimed.

When her current research is published, it will be interesting to see what her findings are in terms of claims made by the 423 brands of kombucha. In her opinion, more conservative regulatory oversight is needed on claims that products may improve health and on the accuracy of added sugar disclosures.

To find out more, I sought out one of the world’s leading experts on this topic.

Government standards

Professor Paul Cotter is the Head of Food Biosciences at Teagasc (the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority). He is a microbiologist with a focus on fermented foods. He co-authored a 2021 paper on fermented foods that outlines the scientific requirements that must be met for a beverage to be legitimately able to claim it is ‘probiotic’ or ‘gut friendly’ on the label.

The paper makes clear that the science, and legal requirements, are often at odds with marketing claims.

Fermented foods and beverages are sometimes characterized or labelled as “probiotic foods” or “contains probiotics”. These declarations might reflect efforts by manufacturers to communicate to consumers that living, health-promoting microorganisms are present in the product. However, as noted in a previous consensus statement, the term ‘probiotic’ should only be used when there is a demonstrated health benefit conferred by well-defined and characterized live microorganisms. The health benefit must, at least in part, be due to the live microorganisms and must extend beyond any nutritional benefit of the food matrix. For these reasons, the terms ‘fermented food’ and ‘probiotics’ cannot be used interchangeably

To label a product as a probiotic fermented food with an additional stipulated health benefit, evidence of a strain-specific benefit from a well-controlled intervention study is required together with proven safety and confirmation of sufficient numbers of that strain in the final product to confer the claimed benefit,.

On the many internet and popular magazine lists of the ‘best super foods’, fermented foods are often ranked at the top. Such labels, while perhaps useful for marketing, do not convey accurate information for consumers regarding nutritional or other specific properties of fermented foods. Furthermore, as discussed earlier, fermented foods are frequently considered as probiotic foods, even when live microorganisms are absent in the final product and the health benefits have not been clinically demonstrated.

Professor Cotter reiterated this in his comments to me.

The term probiotic is particularly challenging or problematic in some cases in Europe in particular because the regulations associated with establishing that something is a probiotic, I suppose the bar is quite high, strictly speaking, and this is true of the definition that has been established as well. For a microbe to be described as a probiotic it should really have gone through a whole battery of clinical studies to prove specifically what the health benefits are. Quite often when you see some marketing related to fermented foods in the past it did refer to them being rich in probiotic strains, but if you follow the strict guidelines that’s not true because more often than not the microbes in fermented food just haven’t been studied in sufficient depth to reach that bar.

Brands’ responsibility

As the market for kombucha continues to expand it is obviously advisable for brands to secure consumer trust by being honest and accurate in their health claims.

Disclaimer

The views and opinions expressed in this posting are solely those of the original authors and other contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of this publication.

Podcast

To hear more about this important topic, listen to my interviews with both Breanne Metras and Professor Cotter.

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