Engineered Probiotic Ingredient: Bacillus subtilis ZB423™
About ZBiotics® Sugar-to-Fiber and Bacillus subtilis ZB423™
Quality Testing Testing of Bacillus subtilis ZB423™ probiotic biomass
Testing of Bacillus subtilis ZB423™ probiotic biomass
Testing of Sugar-to-Fiber final product
Substantiation Studies
ZBiotics® Sugar-to-Fiber is a powder drink mix that contains the genetically engineered probiotic strain Bacillus subtilis ZB423™. This probiotic was fully developed by ZBiotics’ in-house team of microbiologists and is available exclusively from ZBiotics. Its function is to create levan fiber using dietary sucrose it encounters as it passes through the intestinal tract. This function is important for microbiome health, which creates a series of downstream benefits for overall health.
Quality Testing
At ZBiotics, we pride ourselves on our relentless focus on quality in our products. While quality starts in the lab when we build each strain, it doesn’t stop there. We extensively test every manufacturing batch of both our probiotic ingredients and our final products to ensure that we are not only delivering clean and unadulterated products, but also delivering functional and viable products.
The testing standards we apply to Bacillus subtilis ZB423™ and to Sugar-to-Fiber are listed below.
This is our hero ingredient and what makes Sugar-to-Fiber special. We thoroughly test every single batch, so we know for sure we have clean, viable, and safe probiotic going into every final product.
Activity
Validates that the probiotic ingredient is producing the enzyme levansucrase and that the enzyme is active. Because the production of active levansucrase is the key function that makes B. subtilis ZB423™ perform the task of converting sugar to fiber, it’s critical to ensure that this function is preserved in every new batch we produce.
Viability
We run germination and flow cytometry tests to help ensure that the manufacturing process has not caused damage to the probiotic bacterial spores in a way that could impact their functionality.
Probiotic Quantity
We measure the quantity of viable probiotic bacteria per gram of finished ingredient in order to specifically calculate how much powder needs to go into the final product to ensure we hit our delivered CFU target.
Purity
We ensure every lot is a single strain of the intended probiotic. We sequence to ensure no mutations have arisen during fermentation that could impact performance.
Organoleptics & Stability
Contamination – Microbial
Contamination – Heavy Metals
We applaud the FDA Closer to Zero Initiative and support this standard being set for all foods. We proactively comply by setting our heavy metal production specifications not more than 10x of median production values.
†Release Specification (i.e. we won’t release product if it doesn’t meet this specification)
‡Key Performance Indicator (used to track general product performance and quality, but not a release specification)
We run these tests on our final formulated product when they are being filled into the final sellable units. The formulation includes B. subtilis ZB423™ as well as other ingredients like flavors and stabilizing fillers.
Physical & Organoleptic
†Release Specification
‡Key Performance Indicator
At ZBiotics, we benefit from the incredible work of the scientists and institutions who have spent years studying the effects of fiber and levan on the microbiome and the impact of the microbiome on the rest of the body.