Prebiotics

Prebiotics

Investigating the potential of prebiotics to rebalance and maintain health

Task Force Information

Objectives and list of Task Force
members

Contact Information

Contact details in case you have
specific questions

Activity Overview

Overview of ongoing and
upcoming activities

Expert Groups

Objectives, output and list of experts
involved in each activity

Publications

List of publications of this
Task Force

Multimedia

Links to Task Force's related documents,
recordings and much more...

Completed Expert Groups

Details including experts involved of
each activity

Task Force Information

Objectives

The Prebiotics Task Force advances understanding of how prebiotics interact with the gut microbiota and influence human health, moving from observed benefits towards clear biological mechanisms.

Why It Matters

For public health, stronger mechanistic evidence supports evidence-based strategies that protect consumers and help people make informed choices about products intended to support health.

For companies, mechanistic evidence helps guide product innovation, identify effective prebiotic solutions and strengthen scientific substantiation of health benefits.

Task Force Members

*Scientific Advisor

Contact Information

For more detailed information, please contact Léonie Lang at llang@ilsieurope.be

Activity Overview

Ongoing

 

- Markers of the Gut Microbiota

The group aims to identify key markers for assessing microbiota improvement, focusing on measurable indicators of microbiota composition. The activity is shared with the Probiotics Task Force.

Start date: 2024 - End date: 2026

- Role of Prebiotics in Better Managing Women’s Health 

The Expert Group will aim to understand the extent and mechanisms by which prebiotics impact the women’s health in different stages of life.

Start date: 2025 - End date: 2027

- Shaping Metabolic Health: GLP-1 Receptor Agonists, Prebiotics, and the Gut-Brain Axis

The research group will explore how prebiotics support weight control, both independently and alongside GLP-1 receptor agonists. A workshop on GLP-1 analogues and health outcomes is planned for Q1 2026. The Expert Group will investigate key mechanisms, such as SCFA production, gut hormone stimulation, and microbiome modulation—with a focus on enhancing satiety, metabolic regulation, and treatment adherence. A key objective is to evaluate whether prebiotics can help reduce GLP-1–related side effects, such as gastrointestinal discomfort.

Start Date: 2026 - End Date: 2028

In the Pipeline

In 2027, the Task Force will develop a new activity proposal.

While the exact scope is still to be defined, prioritised topics include:

  • Interindividual variability in response to prebiotics: prebiotics and specific place of fermentation (from small intestine to distal colon);
  • Consumer interest and understanding of fibers and prebiotics: the role of prebiotics in GLP1-RA users and ex-users.

Expert Groups

Markers of the Gut Microbiota

Background and Objectives

Changes in the gut microbiota are increasingly linked to health outcomes, but consistent markers for measuring these effects are still lacking. This Expert Group aims to establish standardized markers for assessing improvements in gut microbiota composition and activity following dietary interventions. They will evaluate microbial composition, metabolites, enzymatic systems, mucosal integrity and immune responses to identify the most informative and predictive parameters for human health and strengthen the evidence linking prebiotic-induced microbiota changes to health benefits.

Output

Open-access peer-reviewed publication.

Expert Group Members

WP DataTables

Role of Prebiotics in Better Managing Women’s Health 

Background and Objectives

Women’s health is shaped by complex interactions between the microbiome, immune system, metabolism and hormonal changes across the life course. This Expert Group aims to assess how prebiotics may support women’s health from puberty through reproductive years, pregnancy, menopause and ageing. They will review current evidence on prebiotic interventions and health outcomes, examine underlying mechanisms including microbial composition, metabolites, barrier function, immune regulation and estrogen metabolism, and identify key research gaps to guide more inclusive and hormone-informed future studies.

Output

Open-access peer-reviewed publication

Expert Group Members

Shaping Metabolic Health: GLP-1 Receptor Agostist, Prebiotics, and the Gut-Brain Axis

Background and Objectives

Metabolic, cognitive and mental health are increasingly linked to interactions between the gut, brain and metabolic signalling pathways. This workshop explored how GLP-1 receptor agonists and prebiotic strategies may influence appetite regulation, metabolic health, cognition and mental well-being through the gut–brain axis. Experts reviewed emerging evidence, discussed real-world clinical implications, and identified key knowledge gaps and priority research questions to guide future collaborative research.

Output

Open-access peer-reviewed publication.

Expert Group Members

 

Publications

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Targeting cognitive resilience through prebiotics: A focused perspective

Advances in Nutrition, 2024

  • ILSI Europe

This perspective article is a product of the work of an expert group within the Prebiotic Task Force convened by the International Life Sciences Institute Europe (ILSI Europe), a non-profit organization that brings together experts from academia, industry and public service to catalyse nutrition science for public benefit.

Read more

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		Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health
		
	



		
		Nutrition and Brain Health
		
	



		
		Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation
		
	



		
		Prebiotics
		
	



		
		
	







		
		Probiotics
		
	



		GUT MICROBIOME AND HEALTH and NUTRITION AND CONSUMER SCIENCE
	

	
The gut and brain link via various metabolic and signalling pathways, each with the potential to influence mental, brain and cognitive health. Over the past decade, the involvement of the gut microbiota in gut-brain communication has become the focus of increased scientific interest, establishing the microbiota-gut-brain axis as a field of research. There is a growing number of association studies exploring the gut microbiota's possible role in memory, learning, anxiety, stress, neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders. Consequently, attention is now turning to how the microbiota can become the target of nutritional and therapeutic strategies for improved brain health and well-being. However, while such strategies that target the gut microbiota to influence brain health and function are currently under development with varying levels of success, still very little is yet known about the triggers and mechanisms underlying the gut microbiota's apparent influence on cognitive or brain function and most evidence comes from pre-clinical studies rather than well controlled clinical trials/investigations. Filling the knowledge gaps requires establishing a standardised methodology for human studies, including strong guidance for specific focus areas of the microbiota-gut-brain axis, the need for more extensive biological sample analyses, and identification of relevant biomarkers. Other urgent requirements are new advanced models for in vitro and in vivo studies of relevant mechanisms, and a greater focus on omics technologies with supporting bioinformatics resources (training, tools) to efficiently translate study findings, as well as the identification of relevant targets in study populations. The key to building a validated evidence base rely on increasing knowledge sharing and multi-disciplinary collaborations, along with continued public-private funding support. This will allow microbiota-gut-brain axis research to move to its next phase so we can identify realistic opportunities to modulate the microbiota for better brain health.

	
To download this open-access article, please click here.

	
This work was conducted in collaboration with the Early Nutrition and Long-Term Health, Nutrition and Brain Health, Nutrition, Immunity and Inflammation, Prebiotics and Probiotics Task Forces.



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		Abstract
	

	
This perspective article is a product of the work of an expert group within the Prebiotic Task Force convened by the International Life Sciences Institute Europe (ILSI Europe), a non-profit organization that brings together experts from academia, industry and public service to catalyse nutrition science for public benefit. An expert group was conceived in October 2023 to discuss the evidence base on the use of prebiotics to promote cognitive functioning, with a focus on highlighting knowledge gaps and proposing a list of recommendations to guide this specific area of research forward. To address this, we evaluated existing systematic reviews and meta-analyses of human intervention studies that examine the effects of prebiotics on cognitive functioning. These are predominantly conducted in healthy participants under basal conditions and have, to date, revealed limited effects. In this perspective, we propose that prebiotics should be investigated as agents to promote cognitive resilience by testing their effects on cognitive performance under certain cognition-taxing factors that individuals encounter across their lifespan. These include stress, poor sleep outcomes, sedentary behaviour, and unhealthy dietary patterns, all of which have been shown to be associated with altered microbiome and impact global cognition or specific cognitive domains. In addition, we recommend identifying vulnerable populations that are either sub-clinical or that struggle chronically or periodically with one or more cognition-taxing factors, to better uncover the boundary conditions for prebiotic effectiveness. By broadening the scope of research to include diverse populations and challenging conditions in daily life or experimental settings, we can expand our understanding of the role of prebiotics not only in cognitive health or impairment, but also as potential preventative agents that may promote cognitive resilience during aging and in response to various lifestyle-related challenges.



		One-pager
	

				
			
						Read the full article
					
	
Commissioned by the Prebiotics Task Force




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                    [post_title] => Systematic Review of the Effects of the Intestinal Microbiota on Selected Nutrients and Non-Nutrients
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Together with proteins and fats, carbohydrates are one of the macronutrients in the human diet. Digestible carbohydrates, such as starch, starch-based products, sucrose, lactose, glucose and some sugar alcohols and unusual (and fairly rare) α-linked glucans, directly provide us with energy while other carbohydrates including high molecular weight polysaccharides, mainly from plant cell walls, provide us with dietary fibre. Carbohydrates which are efficiently digested in the small intestine are not available in appreciable quantities to act as substrates for gut bacteria. Some oligo- and polysaccharides, many of which are also dietary fibres, are resistant to digestion in the small intestines and enter the colon where they provide substrates for the complex bacterial ecosystem that resides there. This review will focus on these non-digestible carbohydrates (NDC) and examine their impact on the gut microbiota and their physiological impact. Of particular focus will be the potential of non-digestible carbohydrates to act as prebiotics, but the review will also evaluate direct effects of NDC on human cells and systems

			Keywords
							Expand
		
Prebiotics, short-chain fatty acids (SCFA), non-digestible carbohydrates

	
To download this open-access article, please click here.


This work was commissioned by the Prebiotics Task Force.



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Completed Expert Groups

Overview of completed activities