A Solution to our Problem?

After going off and doing more research on theories behind causes of gastrointestinal disorders, there is a positive amount of feedback about post remission treatment (where doctors treat the inflammation in the intestines) of patients with the consumption of functional foods such as probiotics. There seems to be a common belief between a lot of the research done on gastrointestinal problems that the microbial ecosystem diversity in our intestines plays a huge role in our health. The ratio of good to bad bacteria is disrupted when symptoms of IBD or IBS occur and the healthy microbial flora need to be replenished.

Some people believe that an over sensitive reaction to certain bad bacteria in the gut is what is causing the immune system to attack so excessively but this is just a theory and more research would be needed to prove it, but if true, probiotics may be a good preventative measure to stop these symptoms of IBD (Diarrhoea, fatigue, anaemia, cramps/abdominal pain, weight loss, loss of appetite etc.) flaring up and be a more effective form of treatment than with antibiotics which may be lowering the good bacteria levels in gut simultaneously allowing room for bad bacteria to thrive (Healthline, 2014) .

One source of probiotics and other beneficial microbes that has been hailed as a miracle source for gut health that seems to keep popping up is Kefir. The kefir is full of healthy probiotics, yeasts, enzymes, amino acids, vitamins and minerals which actively help cleanse the digestive system of toxins and restore healthy balance to ecosystem in the gut. It is regularly consumed as a dairy product such as kefir milk but the grains can be used to ferment water which is a great option for our dairy free probiotic drink.

We discussed this as an option for the product and agreed it was a good idea to go with for our concept as it has been given positive feedback by people suffering with gastrointestinal disorders, as well as being beneficial to consume for people without these disorders just to improve health. We believe there is a market for a kefir water product for this reason and that it is not well known about enough by the population according to our own personal survey done less than 20% of people had heard of kefir but did not really know much about it.

Next we will have to look into the barriers and obtactles of producing the product and the feasibilty of scaling up production. To get a better idea of how the process works I have decided to ferment some kefir water myself at home to get a better understanding of how it might work.

Developing and building on our product concept....

Now that we have a concept for a product to design we can look into it more and build up on it. Why we chose the idea of a product/ supplementation to help treat the symptoms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease is because I myself am a sufferer of Crohns Disease and know all about the difficulties of living with such a condition. I thought it would be good to develop an idea to help other sufferers of IBD as there is relatively little known about the ailment but more knowledge is being gained and researched on about it in recent times.

There were many things for me Shane & Seán to discuss and research to build our concept into a viable product. For example what research has been done into crohns and colitis? What causes it? What are its symptoms? What triggers a flare up? How is it treated and managed? Lucky enough I can draw on my own experiences of dealing with Crohns to answer some of these. The cause of IBD is not entirely known but flare ups of cramps, loss of appetite, blood loss in fecal matter, fatigue and anemia are common symptoms of the disease. Some immuno suppressant medication can be used to help deal with the inflammation of the bowel but the most important treatment is DIET.


There has been an increase in the amount of research done on nutraceutical treatments to help with IBD such as Vitamin D and Probiotics supplementation. With this in mind we set out to develop a product fortified with Vitamin D, has anti inflammatory properties and contains probiotics. But what kind of product should we go for? We wanted to go for something quick and easy to consume as a snack in the morning or lunch. A drink? A chocolate or granola bar?

We decided on a health drink that could be taken in the morning or for lunch. We still have some barriers to get past such as figure out how to fortify the drink with Vitamin D, what ingredients could give it an anti inflammatory property and also what probiotic strain would be most beneficial to use, should we make the product dairy or non dairy as many IBD suffers are lactose intolerant to some extent, what bioprocesses need to be used to achieve desired end product, what is the products shelf life, how to stabilize the product so that the ingredients can all be contained in product properly?

For a quick video on the importance of probiotics click on link --->https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k8Puxz54FQ

The journey begins with the first step...

First things first,I must admit I am beginning this journey of developing a product with little or no prior knowledge of bioprocessing! But I am using this to my advantage as I learn new and wonderful things about the process and how it is utilized to develop new products and hopefully with a fresh perspective from a different viewpoint like mine I can exploit and expand on new markets. :D

To put simply my understanding of bioprocessing is the use of Micro-organisms for the benefit or use of making a product from a biological source. It is up to a team of me and two other handsome men (Shane & Seán :-* ) to come up with a new innovative idea that would interest companies to invest in and develop.

We met up first and discussed what we knew about bioprocessing so far and what skills might be needed such as knowledge of microbiology, molecular biology, process engineering, immunology, biochemistry, bioinformatics & process analytical technology. Some of these skills we have gained through the yours of food innovation and some of these skills we are lacking in but will have to learn and develop as we go along.

We are lucky enough to have Shane on our team who has some 1st hand knowledge of some bioprocessing as he has worked in a micro brewery, so the 'master brewer' Shane will become a valuable team member with experience in the engineering involved in bioprocessing as we develop our product.

We met up for some brain storming and with myself being a long term sufferer of Crohn's Disease, an Inflammatory Bowel Disease with no known cure only long term treatment which often means drastic life style changes which I know all too well about such as diet. So we agreed to look into developing some sort of product or supplementation to help ease symptoms of IBD sufferers.