Biomiii Pte Ltd, co-founded by Dr Chia Tet-Fatt and Chia Pui Yoong, specialises in using its in-house Miiiome Technology in formulating postbiotics products applicable to B2B businesses across food, pet nutrition, animal feed, and agriculture sectors.
The technology is also used to formulate the company’s very own supplement product marketed under the same brand name Biomiiii. The supplement, launched two years ago on Shopee, is formulated with six proprietary Lactobacillus strains, a blend of prebiotics and postbiotics.
Speaking to NutraIngredients-Asia at Miiiome Tradeshow 2024 organised by the company itself, Dr Chia said that the Biomiii brand has ventured into postbiotics mouthwash as well as fermented foods which was showcased for the first time at the tradeshow.
The tradeshow was held in SCAPE Singapore on November 6 and 7 and exhibited postbiotics innovations made using Miiiome technology across various sectors.
The decision to branch from supplements to mouthwash and fermented foods is to provide a comprehensive solution that takes care of the entire gastrointestinal (GI) tract, explained Dr Chia.
“We want to develop products for the complete protection. To have complete protection, you have to cover the entire GI tract.
“And you will need three things. We have the mouthwash for oral health, our supplement for the gut, and the third thing is food that we consume,” he said.
Poor oral health, in addition, has also been shown to affect cardiovascular health, and hence the reason in developing an oral health product, said Dr Chia.
A cohort study published in the European Journal of Preventative Cardiology in 2018, for instance, showed “moderate, positive association between tooth loss and coronary heart disease” in both men and women.
Notably, the association is not present among men who are non-smokers, although it remains to be the case for women.
Through the new additions, the company also hopes to address misconceptions that consumers might have regarding how bacteria work.
Pickled foods are not fermented foods
For one, the company hopes to clarify the misconception that pickled foods are fermented foods.
At the show, the company showcased five fermented foods, including fermented strawberry and fermented broccoli – which are all grown in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and will be sold over there and also exported to Singapore for sale on Shopee.
“A lot of people think that pickling is the same as fermentation. Pickled foods, in fact, are not fermented foods.
“When you add sugar, vinegar to the vegetables, and soak it, that’s what we call pickling.
“Fermentation, on the other hand, is when you put in vegetable, a starter culture, and a low percentage of salt – at two per cent or even less,” said Dr Chia, adding that the starter culture will help kickstart the fermentation process.
The starter culture is also made using the Miiiome technology and the company’s proprietary Lactobacillus strain.
On top of that, the company also paid attention to the type of salt used for fermentation.
Instead of using the usual sodium chloride, Dr Chia said that the company has concocted a different type of salt containing minerals beneficial to the body, namely magnesium, and trace amount of manganese and zinc.
One of the benefits of taking fermented foods, he pointed out, was easier digestion.
“Fermented foods are more easily digested. When a person is sick, he/she is not able to digest well, same goes for people who are stressed.
“But because fermented foods are foods that are already ‘pre-digested’ by the microbes, they are more easily digested by the body. And because the foods are more easily digested, the uptake of nutrients goes up,” he explained.
Another benefit of fermentation is that it could increase the amount of bioactives and nutrients present in foods.
“For example, if the vegetables contain 30mcg of B complex, after fermentation, this can now go up to 300mcg. You can see that it has increased by 10-fold, the extra 270mcg are synthesised by the microbes during the fermentation process,” he explained.
Bacteria: Not to kill but to promote good bacteria
The mouthwash, launched about a year ago, was formulated with Lactobacillus paracasei and Lactobacillus reuteri pro- and postbiotics in an oil-based instead of water-based liquid.
“We are not out to kill 99.99 per cent of the bacteria with our mouthwash. That’s what antibiotics and disinfectants do, and this is already passé.
“When you kill the bacteria, you are killing both the good and bad ones, it doesn’t work that way [for maintaining oral health],” said Dr Chia.
The approach that the company is taking is to support the colonisation of good bacteria.
“Our focus is to make sure that the good bacteria increase in number, as many as possible, so that there is an even higher chance of the good bacteria ruling and controlling the space,” said Pui Yoong.
