Superbrewed Food—a startup best known for producing single-cell protein via biomass fermentation—has launched Thryvia, a low-dose “postbiotic” ingredient made from the same protein-rich bacterium and positioned to support digestive and immune health.
The firm, which began commercial production in Europe earlier this year with manufacturing partner Döhler, is best known for SB1, a whole-food protein ingredient made from a non-GMO bacterium and designed for use at 10–20 grams per serving.
Thryvia, which has a slightly different formulation, is intended for much lower inclusion rates of around 200mg per serving across capsules, powders, gummies, bars, foods and beverages. Superbrewed has also brought in nutraceuticals industry veteran Michael Bush as chairman of the board.
“This isn’t a move away from the protein opportunity,” cofounder Bryan Tracy told AgFunderNews. “Customer interest and demand for our postbiotic cultured protein (SB1) remain strong. The constraint is capacity: raising the capital required to build substantially beyond what our Döhler partnership can currently produce remains a real challenge.
“We’ve developed Thyrvia as a postbiotic with functionality at much lower inclusion levels, which addresses a different customer need and value proposition. We can support multiple significant customer launches and their growth with our existing production footprint rather than waiting for a major capacity expansion.”
The timing is also compelling, he claimed. “We’re seeing tremendous market interest in natural ingredients that can bring digestive and immune-support functionality into supplements and everyday functional foods. Thyrvia gives us a highly differentiated way to address that demand.”
“As someone who has spent years in the microbiome space, I know exactly what it takes to bring a category-defining ingredient to market — and Thryvia has that potential.” Michael Bush, co-chairman, Superbrewed Food; former president and CEO, Ganeden
Postbiotics: Functionality without the formulation constraints of probiotics
Unlike probiotics, which are live microbes that can only be used in a limited number of food and beverage applications, postbiotics are inert. This means they can be used in a wider variety of products that don’t need refrigeration or special processing conditions to maintain their viability.
They are sometimes heat-treated or ‘inactivated’ probiotics, but can also be byproducts of fermentation such as metabolites. Postbiotics already on the market include ADM’s heat treated version of its BPL1 probiotic, and Cargill’s Epicor yeast fermentate.
Thryvia is produced from a heat-killed, non-viable Clostridium tyrobutyricum strain that secured a GRAS “no questions” letter from the FDA in 2024 and is shelf-stable at room temperature, explained Tracy.
“Because Thryvia is non-viable, its functionality does not depend on maintaining live-organism viability through manufacturing, distribution and shelf life. This gives brands broad formulation flexibility across capsules, powders, gummies, bars, foods and beverages—including shelf-stable and UHT-processed formats—as well as pet nutrition.”
He added: “One of the most interesting opportunity spaces is products that are difficult or impossible to formulate with traditional probiotics or prebiotics. Probiotics can introduce stability, processing and cold-chain constraints and generally won’t survive processes such as UHT.
“Prebiotics can require multiple gram-level inclusion, which can create formulation and sensory challenges. Thyrvia is compatible with demanding food-processing conditions and shelf-stable even in UHT applications and we’re actively working towards multiple customer launches.”
How strong is the evidence?
According to Tracy, Thyrvia is distinct in the market as its “bioactivity comes from proteins that are part of the biomass. Several postbiotics in the market are based on beta-glucans, metabolites, and secondary metabolites. I’m not aware of postbiotics in the market that are based on proteins.”
But what evidence is there to support gut health or immunity claims, and won’t large customers want to see published human clinical studies before they make any claims on pack?
According to Tracy, in vitro testing on Thyrvia demonstrates selective activation of receptors that trigger signaling pathways involved in innate immunity, inflammation, and maintenance of the gut barrier.
Animal studies in turn provide “translational evidence of intestinal and host-response activity,” says Tracy, while a four-week consumer perception study found self-reported improvements across multiple measures of digestive comfort.
Additional human studies are “ongoing,” he claimed. “Human evidence is absolutely required, with the level of rigor required depending on the specific claim a customer intends to make.”
Consumer perception studies can tell you whether people actually experience a meaningful benefit, which can be sufficient to make a claim in some cases, he said. Mechanistic and translational studies, meanwhile, help us understand the biology and establish plausible modes of action.
“But substantiating specific structure/function claims [such as supports gut health] ultimately requires appropriately designed well-powered, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled human trials. We are building this complete evidence package now.”
He added: “That commitment to evidence should be familiar from SB1: we sponsored two human clinical trials and have supported several third-party functional evaluations. We intend to build the Thyrvia evidence base just as seriously.”
For potential customers, the postbiotic message is resonating, said Tracy, who claimed that Superbrewed’s bacterium meets the definition of ‘postbiotic’ laid out in an ISAPP (International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics) consensus paper (‘a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host’).
“A majority of potential SB1 [protein] customers are also very interested in Thyrvia. That overlap makes sense: digestive and immune support can be highly complementary to protein nutrition, particularly as brands increasingly look beyond macronutrients toward broader functional benefits.”
Further reading:
Döhler brings Superbrewed’s postbiotic protein into commercial production
🎥 Collaborate or die: Hacking the next generation of healthy foods at MISTA
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