Microbiome science is rapidly evolving, expanding beyond traditional probiotics and prebiotics to include synbiotics, postbiotics, human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), bacteriophages and next-generation probiotics. This award celebrates the most innovative ingredients designed to modulate the microbiome in ways that support health, resilience and overall wellbeing.

Today's leading ingredients go beyond isolated strains to influence the broader microbial ecosystem, leveraging novel fibres, metabolite-rich compounds and synergistic approaches to promote diversity, stability and functionality across the gut, skin and other microbiome niches. This award recognises ingredients that are pushing the boundaries of microbiome modulation, combining robust science, demonstrated efficacy and real-world impact.

Our Judges looked at how your ingredient meets specific needs and based their scores on the evidence to demonstrate:

• A genuine consumer demand or requirement based upon a common issue or risk factor
• Solid scientific evidence to demonstrate a unique nutritional solution to this need or problem – including peer reviewed data to back up any performance or health claims made
• Commercial success and engagement from your core target market(s). Give numbers and examples of sales and applications that are available in the market
• What gives your ingredient the ‘X factor’ – something that makes it stand out from the crowd and edge out the competition (including evidence to back up claims)

To view the entry questions for this category, click to download

REQUIREMENT: Entries for the NutraIngredients Europe Awards, Ingredient of the Year categories were required to have the ingredient in a finished product that is commercially available in Europe.