Gut health may not be a new trend in food and beverage, but it is entering a new phase in which rising consumer demand for more specific benefits is opening the door for a broader range of products featuring different ingredients, formats and usage occasions that fit more easily into their daily lives.
According to IFIC’s 2025 Food & Health Survey, 37% of Americans are seeking digestive health benefits from their diet – up 7% from 2022. In the same period, Google searches for ‘gut health’ have more than doubled – fueling rapid expansion of the global digestive health product market, which Precedence Research pegged at $60.4 billion in 2025 and forecasted would reach $124.9 billion by 2034.
And, yet, despite this surge of interest in gut health, many consumers still struggle to distinguish between digestive health ingredients, understand their unique benefits or know where to find them – begging the question, how can CPG companies better meet consumer needs and fill gaps in their education?
At the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City last month, three brands shared their approaches to innovation and education, as well as where the market is headed next.
Gut health is becoming more personalized
One of those approaches starts with one of the category’s most familiar formats: yogurt. But Trimona Foods is betting that consumers are looking beyond the most familiar probiotics alone, combining traditional Bulgarian yogurt cultures with A2 dairy to target digestive comfort.
“Bulgarian yogurt is the original yogurt, because we use a yogurt culture that was discovered in Bulgaria many years ago,” which Trimona Foods blends with other cultures and ferments for 30 hours – creating a “tangy and tart” product, said Atanas Valev, founder of Trimona Foods.
He explained that Trimona has a lower pH balance around 3.7 to 3.8 compared to other yogurts that are typically 4.2 and up.
But beyond the cultures and lower sugar, Trimona is easier for digestion because it uses milk that only contains the A2 type of beta-casein protein, rather than the more common blend of A1 and A2 proteins found in most conventional milk.
A2 milk is natural and comes from cows that carry the A2A2 gene, including Jersey, Brown Swiss breeds and Guernsey cows, Valev explained.
He added that some individuals who experience bloating, gas or discomfort after drinking milk with A1 proteins may find A2 much gentler on the stomach.
Chikka Chikka offers ‘unique and fun twist on an ayurvedic remedy’ for digestion
Not every company is looking to the microbiome for answers. Chikka Chikka is taking inspiration from a much older approach to digestive wellness, building a modern snack around fennel seeds – a traditional ingredient that’s been used after meals in many cultures for generations.
“Chikka Chikka is inspired by a cherished household practice across South Asia, which is chewing fennel seeds after a meal. It is a natural palate cleanser and naturally helps to calm the tummy and counteract acidity and bloating,” Chikka Chikka Co-founder Sabeen Hasan said.
“Fennel seeds actually are an alkaline food, and when you chew on the seeds first, it signals to your brain that you know digestion is starting. You start to generate saliva, and so in doing that, it starts to cleanse your palate, you know, fight off bacteria in your mouth, and then as it continues through your digestive tract, it’s relaxing the muscles in your stomach that shoot out acid, so like quite literally is just like calming that lycosidic reaction that you can have when you’re eating different foods,” she added.
To make the practice more accessible to consumers who may not be familiar with chewing fennel seeds, Chikka Chikka blends the seeds with other ingredients to create three familiar flavor profiles – cardamom, mint and cinnamon. It packages them in brightly colored and intricately illustrated tins that are easy to keep in a purse, by the desk or in a car, Hasan said.
The product’s shelf stability and small size gives it a competitive edge to other digestion aids, like yogurt that needs to be refrigerated.
Small Town Cultures offers kimchi on-the-go
Another emerging direction is fermentation itself. Rather than adding functional ingredients to foods, Small Town Cultures is betting consumers increasingly want naturally fermented products that fit into everyday meals.
Kimchi, or fermented cabbage and vegetables, is a traditional food often prized for its digestive benefits rooted in a combination of probiotics and prebiotics – but large containers of it can be intimidating for the uninitiated.
In response, Small Town Cultures debuted grab-and-go pouches at the Summer Fancy Food show to “make fermented foods more accessible, more exciting and also bring the price point down, so that it can be an impulse buy,” explained Founder Cori Deans.
She explains that she is a “picky eater” was intimidated by kimchi and sauerkraut, which is why she made Small Town Cultures’ blends “very bright, very fresh” and less umami forward than some kimchi.
“They are not super rich in umami,” she said. “We are bringing people who enjoy pickles over to this space as well, because it is not going to be exclusive. You don’t have to love this rich umami flavor to love Small Town Cultures.”
Unlike some kimchi and sauerkraut products sold in pouches, Small Town Cultures does not vent its packages, so consumers can feel confident they won’t leak if they carry them in a cooler or their purse, she said.
Deans doesn’t talk about the health benefits of fermented foods on her product pack, but if asked she shares her personal story of healing her gut and managing her own digestion and health by introducing fermented foods after an elimination diet.
“Instead of getting really nitty-gritty about the specifics around fermented foods and gut health, which we can do, I just want to let people know that this helps you feel good, it tastes delicious, it makes your meals better,” and as the company’s tagline notes – makes consumers “feel human again,” said Deans.
Takeaway
If there’s one takeaway from these conversations, it’s that gut health is no longer defined by a single ingredient or even a single product category. Companies are exploring everything from cultured dairy and fermented foods to traditional botanical ingredients in an effort to offer more targeted digestive benefits.
The opportunity is significant, but so is the challenge.
As the category becomes more sophisticated, brands will need to do more than make gut-health claims. They’ll need to clearly communicate how their products work, who they’re for and what makes them different.
