Here at OLIPOP, we talk about fiber and prebiotics pretty often. After all, we pack multiple sources of soluble, prebiotic dietary fiber in every single OLIPOP can. However, if you don’t know much about dietary fiber, it can feel like a complex topic to understand. This is partially because you can classify fiber in many different ways, like soluble vs. insoluble, fermentable vs. not, and so on. Fibers also have different names that aren’t always easy to identify or even pronounce (like inulin, acacia, guar, resistant dextrins, and galactooligosaccharides). 

What’s also interesting about fiber is that no two fibers are created equal.^{[1] [2] [3]} Fibers have different chain lengths, and depending on the fiber type, they can have different physiological impacts on your health.^{[1] [2] [3]} For example, certain types of fibers may serve as food for the beneficial bacteria in your gut. These particular fiber types are “prebiotics”. They support the good bacteria in your gut and help produce other health-promoting bacteria and metabolites.

You can find naturally occurring fibers in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and seeds. You can also isolate or extract fiber from plants or seeds and use them in food and beverage manufacturing. Examples of some of these fiber types are the sources that you find in OLIPOP such as inulin from chicory root and Jerusalem artichoke and resistant dextrins from cassava root fiber. While you can’t visibly see the fiber in OLIPOP, rest assured there is a full 9g of prebiotic fiber from plant-based sources in your can, backed by research and validated through third-party testing and certification.

Plant to Can Processing: How OLIPOP Gets Fiber Into Soda

But how exactly do we get all that fiber in our can of soda? To get our prebiotic fibers from the plants in the field to every can of OLIPOP takes a bit of modern-day magic. We’re meticulous in sourcing and ensuring that our OLISMART prebiotic fibers work well in our industry-leading functional soda. 

Our initial key criteria for selecting each OLISMART prebiotic fiber are:

• Fully soluble in carbonated water, with no precipitation (you don’t want to have to shake a carbonated beverage before consuming)
• Have very little inherent color
• Be sweet, or at minimum neutral in taste
• Be stable at the specified storage conditions

All prebiotic fibers in OLISMART meet these criteria. How do we get the soluble fibers isolated from the whole plant and into a can of OLIPOP? Without boring you with nerdy food science details, here’s a simple step-by-step:

1. Our first critical step involves water. Water is a clean way to get the plant fiber materials separated from all the parts that aren’t functional or soda-friendly.

2. Next, we purify the isolated fibers and dry them to remove any excess water.

3. After these two steps, we’re left with the soluble prebiotic fiber that your gut microbiome enjoys.

Extensive Quality Control & Third Party Validation

OLIPOP is committed to ensuring that the prebiotics we put into all our beverages are present and accounted for from bottling all the way to cracking open the can for your first sip. This starts with the prebiotics we choose. We only partner with companies that provide testing on every batch to show that the prebiotics we get are in efficacious amounts and have research that shows they will support digestive health. 

From there, we make sure that when we are putting OLIPOP together none of that goodness gets lost. We do this by testing our products after they’re in the can to ensure the amount of prebiotics featured on the label is the amount of prebiotics in the can. In other words, we make sure that the blending process doesn’t change our prebiotic count.

OLIPOP is also the first beverage company to participate in the NutraStrong™ Prebiotic-Verified Product Certification. NutraStrong™ independently verifies these tests to ensure OLIPOP is meeting its commitments. We don't stop there though! At OLIPOP we also conduct tests to ensure that when stored correctly, our product maintains these levels of prebiotic fibers through the best-by date stamped on the bottom of your can. So from start to finish, OLIPOP's Quality Team is making sure that OLIPOP tastes amazing and provides an excellent source of fiber, no matter when you drink it.

Scientifically-Supported Prebiotic Fiber Formulation

OLIPOP includes different prebiotic fiber types, such as inulin and resistant dextrins, from three different plant sources. We chose to formulate our sodas with several prebiotic fiber types because it’s a metaphor for reminding consumers of the importance of nutritional diversity. Even in your soda!

Also, as part of setting the standard in functional soda, we partnered with Dr. Stephen Lindemann at Purdue University to help us better understand prebiotic fibers’ impact on the gut microbiome. Using a multi-donor humanized stool in-vitro gut fermentation model, we observed many beneficial outcomes resulting from the presence of our prebiotic fibers. A few highlights from the in-vitro study include: 

• The prebiotic fibers led to an increase in healthy good-for-you gut bacteria!
• We also saw an increase in healthy metabolites (small molecules) called short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs). These compounds help feed the intestinal barrier, supporting healthy gut tissue among many other health effects.

To learn more, nerd out by reading our manuscript pre-print in Biorxiv. In addition to original scientific research, we’re humbled to have assembled a global team of leading human gut microbiome research pioneers. This group of key gut, microbiome, and prebiotic scientific experts bring their decades of expertise to help OLIPOP design advanced prebiotic fiber formulations.

Our Promise to You

There are many misconceptions about dietary fiber. So as a team, we thought it would be amazing to provide some solid education on the topic. Looking for more information on gut health and prebiotic fiber? Head to our blog for more fun, educational topics. 

We hope that you can enjoy a can (or more) of OLIPOP each day and feel good about enjoying a product that goes under extensive quality control with prebiotic verification. OLIPOP also contains research-backed ingredients that are supportive of digestive health. We care about what our product contains and what it offers in comparison to other functional beverages on the market. Thank you for choosing OLIPOP!

Sources

1. Slavin, J. L. (2013). Fiber and Prebiotics: Mechanisms and health benefits. Nutrients, 5(4), 1417–1435. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu5041417 
2. Carlson, J., Erickson, J., Lloyd, B., & Slavin, J. L. (2018). Health effects and sources of prebiotic dietary fiber. Current Developments in Nutrition, 2(3), nzy005. https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzy005 
3. Guan, Z., Yu, E., & Feng, Q. (2021). Soluble dietary fiber, one of the most important nutrients for the gut microbiota. Molecules, 26(22), 6802. https://doi.org/10.3390/molecules26226802 

Meet our Experts This article is written by Renee Korczak Ph.D., RDN, CSSD, LD, Noah Voreades, and Mike Weiser Ph.D.
Renee is an advanced practice registered dietitian nutritionist with expertise in digestive health. Renee has her board specialty in sports dietetics and continues to be active in the digestive health and sports nutrition space. Outside of work, Renee enjoys time with her two children and husband. She enjoys world travel, cooking, and yoga.
Noah serves as OLIPOP’s Scientific & Medical Affairs Partnerships consultant. His scientific expertise encompasses microbiome, personalized nutrition & food as medicine fields. Noah’s master’s of science degree focused on the intersection of nutrition, gut microbiome & metabolomics. As an urban hunter-gatherer, Noah enjoys exploring Colorado’s mountains and breweries & finding exceptional bean-to-bar chocolatiers. His favorite OLIPOP flavor is grape, closely followed by Root Beer.
Mike is OLIPOP’s Senior Director of Scientific and Medical Affairs. His doctorate is in biomedical science and he has expertise in the intersection of nutrition and dietary supplementation with medical physiology. Mike has spent his career in research and innovation in the natural products industry and has a keen interest in advancing the science around healthy nutrition. His favorite OLIPOP flavor is Root Beer, closely followed by Grape and Crisp Apple.