ORIM Weekly W25 2025

EDITORIAL

Late June and the days are gloriously long. We examine how machine learning is predicting crop nutritional content before harvest and explore the fascinating world of postbiotics, the beneficial metabolites produced by probiotics that may be even more important than the bacteria themselves.

ML Predicts Crop Nutrition Before Harvest

CropX (Israel) deployed machine learning models that predict the mineral and vitamin content of crops 2 weeks before harvest using soil sensor data and weather patterns. Farmers can adjust irrigation and micronutrient applications in the final growth stage to maximize nutritional density at harvest.

3D-Printed Custom Nutrition Bars

Nourished (UK) expanded its 3D-printed personalized vitamin gummy service to include full nutrition bars. Each bar is custom-formulated based on blood test results and dietary analysis, delivering 7 active ingredients in precise doses within a palatable, shelf-stable format.

Agroforestry AI Designs Optimal Tree-Crop Systems

Propagate (US) used AI to model 10,000 agroforestry configurations and identified that nut trees intercropped with nitrogen-fixing ground cover produce 30% higher yields and crops with 20% more selenium than conventional systems, while sequestering 5 tonnes CO2/ha/year.

Postbiotics: Beyond Probiotics

A review in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology (Jun 2025) redefined the field: postbiotics (metabolites produced by beneficial bacteria, including SCFAs, bacteriocins, and exopolysaccharides) may be more important than the live bacteria themselves. Postbiotics are heat-stable, shelf-stable, and dose-controllable.

Fermented foods are rich in both probiotics and postbiotics. The ORIM protocol emphasizes naturally fermented foods over probiotic capsules for this dual benefit.

THIS WEEK IN BRIEF

► Postbiotics: Heat-killed Lactobacillus paracasei reduces allergy symptoms by 40%, proving live bacteria are not always necessary (Allergy, Jun 2025).

► Fermentation: Fermented vegetables contain 100x more bioavailable vitamins than raw equivalents due to bacterial biosynthesis (Food Microbiol, 2025).

► SCFAs: Butyrate, a postbiotic SCFA, directly epigenetically silences inflammatory genes in colon epithelial cells (Nat Commun, 2025).

ORIM Tip: Naturally fermented foods (sauerkraut, kimchi, miso) provide both live probiotics and their metabolic byproducts (postbiotics). Heat-treated fermented foods lose the bacteria but retain the postbiotic benefits.