Last week’s headlines included Nestlé’s sale of its Holistic Health portfolio, Caelus Life Sciences’s positive EU Novel Foods opinion for Anaerobutyricum soehngenii, and NutraIngredients’ Chinese-language news on WeChat.
Nestlé’s sale of its Holistic Health portfolio to Yellow Wood Partners
Private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners has agreed to acquire Nestlé’s mainstream vitamins, minerals and supplements (VMS) business for $1 billion, following the food giant’s strategic review of several supplement assets last year.
The Holistic Health portfolio generated $1.2 billion in sales in 2025, Nestlé reported. The sale covers seven brands: Nature’s Bounty, Osteo Bi-Flex, Ester-C, Gard, Nuun, Puritan’s Pride and Sisu.
Also included are Nestlé’s associated U.S. private-label supplements business and dedicated manufacturing, packaging, warehousing and distribution operations.
Nestlé confirmed the move will allow it to concentrate on premium, science-led VMS brands, including Solgar and Pure Encapsulations.
“Nestlé likes premium brands and winnowing the portfolio to give them the premium brands is a smart strategy,” said Greg Horn, managing director and partner at William Hood and former CEO of GNC and Garden of Life. “Companies like Nestlé think in longer time frames and they eventually sold the parts they didn’t want. It’s an established playbook, and I wasn’t surprised to see it.”
Caelus next-gen live commensal bacterium gains EU Novel Food safety approval
A freeze-dried form of the gut bacterium Anaerobutyricum soehngenii CH106, developed by Caelus Life Sciences, has become the first live, gut-native bacterium of its kind to receive a positive EFSA safety opinion under the EU Novel Food Regulation.
Four years after submitting its application, the Dutch microbiome health ingredient developer has received a positive opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on the safety of A. soehngenii CH106, at the proposed daily amount (2.0 × 10⁹ active fluorescent units) for adults, excluding pregnant and breastfeeding women.
This is a major milestone for the industry, according to Caelus, as it is the first positive EU Novel Food scientific opinion given to a live commensal bacterium developed de novo as a new food ingredient.
“EFSA’s scientific opinion marks a defining moment for Caelus,” said Jos Seegers, director of operations at Caelus. “It shows that a live bacterium from the human gut can meet Europe’s demanding safety standards, validating more than 15 years of scientific research. It brings the company a significant step closer to making the strain available to consumers as part of a new, microbiome-based approach to cardiometabolic health.”
NutraIngredients introduces Chinese-language news on WeChat
NutraIngredients is introducing Chinese-language, bite-sized microbiome news on the major Chinese social communication app WeChat.
With China being the largest probiotic market in Asia-Pacific and on track to becoming the largest globally, Chinese-language readers can find out bite-sized updates on the global microbiome nutraceutical sector, including new regulations, ingredient research and product launches.
On top of news updates, NutraIngredients is also deeply involved in the microbiome industry through its market-leading Probiota summit series held globally, as well as the International Scientific Conference on Probiotics, Prebiotics, Gut Microbiota and Health (IPC) acquired by William Reed last year.
Probiota is held annually across the regions with the Probiota Americas 2026 taking place in June in Vancouver and set to move to Boston next year. Probiota Global will take place in Berlin in February 2027.
In October 2027, Probiota China will take place for the first time in Shanghai.
Follow the NutraIngredients WeChat news service via the account “William Reed” to receive your latest microbiome news in the Chinese language and updates on Probiota China now.
