NMR and Strain-Level Verification: Rethinking Probiotics and Postbiotics Testing

At the Future Nutra Innovation Summit in Lake Conroe, Texas, Nutritional Outlook spoke with Amber Thelen, director of technical services and innovation at Purity-IQ.

Fresh off her conference presentation, Thelen dug into a blind spot in the pro- and postbiotic space: the gap between label claims and what testing actually confirms. Many multi-strain blended products, she explained, are still only verified at the species level, leaving manufacturers unable to guarantee their finished formulations truly match their labels. She made the case for pushing the industry toward stronger strain-level verification.

The conversation also covered NMR authenticity testing, a technique less familiar than PCR but increasingly valuable for confirming identity, composition, and purity in prebiotic and postbiotic ingredients. Thelen described how NMR's targeted and non-targeted approaches give brands a full compositional snapshot in a single test, helping detect adulteration and characterize fermentation byproducts like short-chain fatty acids, without the cost of ordering test after test.

Looking ahead, Thelen pointed to a broader industry shift away from the classical plate count method for enumerating probiotics toward more advanced techniques like viability PCR, predicting the same adoption curve NMR experienced, where initial skepticism gave way to industry-wide acceptance.

Watch the full interview for Thelen's complete take on the future of biotics testing.

Transcript

Nico Saraceno: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another Nutritional Outlook video series. I am Nico Saraceno, senior editor of Nutritional Outlook magazine, reporting live from Margaritaville, Lake Conroe, Texas. We are at the Future Nutra Innovation Summit, also known as FNIS. I'm joined today by none other than Amber Thelen. She is the director of technical services and innovation with Purity-IQ. First of all, thanks for joining me here.

Amber Thelen: Thanks for having me.

Saraceno: Of course. There's a lot going on at the show. Obviously, you just actually presented. We'll get into that, but I'm curious to start out: What would you say when it comes to finished pro- and postbiotic products? What are the most common gaps that you're seeing between like what's on the label and what the testing shows? Could you maybe get into that a little bit?

Thelen: Yeah, absolutely. And I just addressed this in my talk as well is that there's a really huge need in the industry to drive more strain-level verification. So, tons of the products we see on the market are multi-strain blended formulations, and yet many brands and manufacturers are still only testing to the species level. So, that's a massive gap because you're not actually guaranteeing that the finished product matches what's on your label.

Saraceno: Oh, interesting. Now, another issue is NMR authenticity verification. Arguably a little less of a familiar tool to many people. You know, PCR is very popular. So, could you maybe walk us through what is NMR actually confirming in a prebiotic or postbiotic ingredient? And I guess the 1B, why do you think that verification matters for someone that's formulating with it?

Thelen: Yeah, absolutely. So, a prebiotic for instance, with NMR, we're allowed to take both a non-targeted and targeted approach. It gives us a holistic view of the sample, so you're looking at the sample as a whole, as opposed to targeting specific markers. And really, what that allows us to do is to confirm its identity, to confirm its overall composition, and then to look specifically at purity at the same time. So, and purity in the context of adulteration, so we're making sure that that product is free of addition, substitution, dilution, and so on. So, we want to make sure the product is authentic. With postbiotics, again, that that non-targeted and targeted approach is very helpful when you're looking at like a fermentation product, so you're looking at those characteristic metabolites, short-chain fatty acids, creating a compositional fingerprint. So, it can be really helpful when you have proprietary products, or if you're looking at microbial fermentations and you want to know what are those compounds produced during fermentation. So, again, a nice technique to give you a snapshot of your product, as opposed to, you know, oh, I want to look for this, I want to look for that, which could be costly. Now you're ordering a bunch of tests, so.

Saraceno: and that could get, yeah, that could get out of control real quickly.

Thelen: Yeah, absolutely.

Saraceno: You know, everyone's obviously trying to save funds where appropriate, right?

Thelen: Yeah, for sure.

Saraceno: So, I'm curious, you're you literally just came out, too, and I know you had a lot of adrenaline, a lot of insight. You know, you're saying you kind of you worked up a sweat up there, but I'm curious, what were kind of the main highlights? We kind of get into it with the questions, but was there any audience feedback or anything that like stuck out to you specifically in terms of the presentation?

Thelen: I think people really resonated with the need to have strain-level verification for one, and the need to move past the classical plate count method, which is currently the gold standard technique for enumerating probiotics. It does have some limitations with today's, you know, complex formulations. So we do need to look at alternative techniques, and the value is in those alternative techniques. So, you know, it's you're moving away from a technique that you know, but you're moving into a technique that's going to give you so much more information that's going to allow you to make better decisions around formulation, stability, shelf life, and so on. So, it's I think the I mean, I think the direction will go there because those techniques will need to be used, like viability PCR, non-viability. We're going to need to use them for postbiotics and next-gen, so they'll become more commonplace, just like when we came in and maybe ruffled everybody's feathers with NMR. You know, it's taken a couple years, but the industry's really adapted to it and sees the value. So I think it'll be the same thing with viability PCR.

Saraceno: Yeah, it sounds like it's only a matter of time. So it'll be interesting to see if we come back here, like where we're standing with this and what the new headline is going to be.