Advanced technologies are converging to deepen our understanding of how food interacts with the body — signaling a shift in how ingredients may be discovered, evaluated and prioritized earlier in the innovation process. As consumers seek simple, intuitive nutrition benefits, new tools from startup companies are emerging — accelerating the ability to identify the functional benefits of naturally derived ingredients.

For Ingredion, AI‑powered discovery and microbiome science are long‑term innovation pathways that strengthen how we evaluate ingredients — from early exploration through future research.

At a glance

Three forces are reshaping the future of advances in food:

• AI-powered ingredient discovery, is slashing timelines and investments required to dramatically expand the toolbox of functional, healthy and naturally aligned ingredients
• Growing understanding of the role of the human microbiome on health, influencing early directional insight into future research possibilities
• Consumer demand for simple, naturally aligned nutrition, shaping expectations for everyday health support

Together, these forces are moving ingredient discovery from broad possibility toward more precise evidence‑informed exploration which significantly reduces the time and resources needed to bring new foods to market. This is where new discovery and insight tools are beginning to influence how innovation pathways are shaped.

How Ingredion, Shiru and Holobiome are reshaping ingredient discovery

As innovation enters its next chapter, Ingredion is taking a future-forward approach by investing in what’s next:

• Smarter ways to discover functional ingredients
• Clearer ways to understand how ingredients and surrounding food matrices may influence activity across a wide range of gut environments

Against this backdrop, Ingredion is developing new collaboration models — including work with Shiru and Holobiome — that together may help open the frontiers for exploring tomorrow’s food innovation.

These collaborations strengthen insights to enable customers as they design products and create health claims to meet evolving wellness expectations.

AI-powered discovery with Shiru: From decades to months

Identifying functional proteins or other naturally derived compounds once required years, even decades, of costly screening and refinement. Shiru’s proprietary AI‑enabled platform, Flourish™, mines a curated database of more than 77 million natural protein sequences to identify candidates with specific, desired characteristics, moving from hypothesis to validated, manufacturable ingredient in a fraction of the traditional time. This shift aligns with the “Bytes to Bites,” trend, where AI moves from exploratory promise to practical use across food and beverage innovation.¹

Ingredion’s collaboration with Shiru brings new predictive capabilities to help establish:

• Rapid identification and validation of high-potential functional protein candidates
• Direct routes to clean-label ingredients, sustainable and naturally aligned formulations
• Precise matching between nutrition goals, sensory performance and product functionality

The collaboration will focus on the development of next‑generation, naturally derived prebiotics from proteins that may help support healthier microbiomes, an area where advanced AI-driven protein discovery is creating new possibilities that conventional screening can miss.

Microbiome insight with Holobiome: Understanding ingredient behavior in the gut

As consumers prioritize digestive wellness, brands want clearer insights into how ingredient choices map to gut health. This interest reflects global growth in digestive and gut health claims and the rising relevance of microbiome‑linked benefits in consumer decision‑making.¹

Ingredion’s collaboration with Holobiome enables an understanding of how diverse food ingredients can impact the gut microbiome and its functions. This is made possible by using Holobiome’s proprietary resources like its large-scale human cohorts, microbiome health models, bacterial strain bank and human gut simulator, and enables the teams to:

• Support early evidence-informed hypotheses for which ingredients and methods may merit deeper R&D consideration based on their impact on the gut microbiome
• Build a more informed, pre-clinical understanding of which ingredients may deliver differentiated, naturally aligned health and nutrition benefits
• Help prioritize ingredients and food matrices worth advancing to further testing

This work connects directly to the evolution of intentional and personalized nutrition, a central theme within the “Precision Wellness” trend.¹

Why this matters for the future of food

Across categories, consumers want products that feel purposeful and uncomplicated. They seek benefits that fit into everyday routines without extra complexity.

People want food that delivers meaningful benefits without feeling complicated — they want greater confidence in how those benefits are developed.

This is where Ingredion’s dual-lens approach becomes powerful:

• AI moves us from broad exploration to targeted discovery, revealing functional potential at unprecedented speed and scale
• Microbiome science shows what may be meaningful, helping teams understand how ingredients, combinations of ingredients and food behave within the body

Together, these collaborations can create:

• A faster route to innovation (reducing the time from idea to viable solution)
• A more informed interpretation of ingredient function
• A pathway toward future personalization that aligns with emerging wellness expectations²

As we explore future innovation possibilities with Shiru and Holobiome, Ingredion is already delivering impact through our Texture and Healthful Solutions segment. Grounded in consumer insights, we help brands achieve elevated texture and positive‑nutrition reformulation with clean label solutions that support sugar reduction, protein and fiber fortification — all without compromising the eating experience consumers return to.

Pioneering the next era of ingredient innovation

As AI matures and microbiome science expands, the landscape of ingredient discovery will shift from possibility to precision. Food and beverage brands may increasingly expect:

• Predictive ingredient intelligence and rapid validation, not just ingredient catalogs
• Predictive formulation tools that anticipate nutrition, texture, stability and sensory outcomes
• Foods and ingredients informed by diverse gut profiles, designed to support what people need
• Solutions aligned with conscious consumption and clean and simple labels

These collaborations are an early step toward that future — and toward Ingredion’s purpose of bringing together people, nature and technology to make life better.

Meet the experts

Related content and resources

Explore further into these trending areas and see how Ingredion is driving innovation

Sources:

1. Top 10 Trends, Innova, 2025
2. Global Trends: Personalized Nutrition, Euromonitor, 2025