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ZOE launches gut health snack bar to make 'complex nutrition accessible'

UK gut health company ZOE has launched a snack bar made with 12 plant-based ingredients whose natural structure is intact in order to maximise dietary diversity and support the microbiome.

The ZOE Gut Health Bar is made using a blend of nuts, seeds, berries, legumes, and wholegrains, packing 12 plant ingredients into each bar. Designed to improve gut microbiome health, the bars contain 8g of fibre, 7g of plant protein, less than 5g of sugar, and are available in two formats: a 40g dark chocolate bar and 38g raspberry and goji berry bar.

For now, the snack bars have launched online in the UK, but ZOE may expand the products into other countries, including EU markets and the US. The company is also considering the option of stocking its bars in work kitchens.

A snack bar to help people increase plant diversity

“The goal is very simple: help people increase plant diversity in a way that is convenient, satisfying, [and] most importantly, enjoyable to snack on,” said Professor Tim Spector, scientific co-founder of ZOE.

“...The food industry uses the 'bliss point', known as the precise combination of fat, sugar, and salt, to bypass our fullness signals and keep us overeating. We designed the ZOE Gut Health Bar to fight back and prove that snacks can be made from real, whole plants that can actively support your micobiome. Eating 30 different plants a week is the single best thing for gut health. By packing over 10 plants into one bar, we're making complex nutrition accessible,” Spector said.

The launch adds to ZOE's existing gut supplement pouch Daily30 – a blend of 30+ fruit, veg, plants, seeds and nuts designed to be added to everyday meals, and its Gut Shot launched with UK retailer M&S.

The ingredient list for the dark chocolate bar is: almonds, cashews, edamame, pumpkin seeds, 70% dark chocolate, goji berries, maple syrup, red lentils, flaxseed, cacao nibs, shea butter, puffed quinoa, seaweed, sea salt, green tea kombucha powder, chicory root inulin

Creating a snack bar that retains the plant matrix

According to a UK survey of 1,000 participants commissioned by ZOE, 95% of the UK population consumes snacks regularly – around two snacks a day – accounting for around 25% of daily calorie intake.

“The UK is undeniably a nation of snackers,” said Professor Sarah Berry, chief scientist at ZOE and professor of nutritional sciences at King's College London. “But for too long, the snacking food industry has optimised for convenience over nutritional quality and gut health. Snacking itself isn't the issue; it's the poor quality of what people are eating,” Berry said.

ZOE's gut health bars have launched after around 18 months of R&D work to refine nutritional content, format, and taste. Importantly, the company worked hard to maintain the food matrix within the bar, it said.

Many of the plants in each bar have retained their natural structures, for example, meaning they can travel further down the digestive tract to feed gut microbes. The whole ingredients also mean the bars take longer to eat – an important decision made during the design process to help slow the snacking experience, according to Berry.

“The ZOE Gut Health Bar is designed to be savoured, not inhaled,” she said. “It has a deliciously chewy texture with many whole ingredients that take time to eat. This is intentional, and is something most bars lack.”

ZOE research shows that fast eaters consume an average of 120 more calories per day than slow eaters and that by reducing eating time by just 20%, energy intake can be reduced by around 15%.

The challenge of finding UPF-free ingredients

The formulations for both of the ZOE Gut Health Bars were developed in-house by ZOE scientists, selecting each ingredient based on scientific data from the company's major multi-year nutrition study. The company then worked with a manufacturing partner to scale the concept.

Speaking to Ingredients Network, Dr Federica Amati, head nutritionist at ZOE and author of “The Appetite Reset” eating guide, said developing the snack bar was no easy feat.

“The key for us was maximising plant diversity,” Amati said. However, packing 10+ plants into one bar, including ingredients not usually found in snacking products like edamame, red lentils, dried beetroot, seaweed, and kombucha, “was a challenge”, she said.

“We even spent months sourcing 70% dark chocolate that was completely free from emulsifiers. We refused to take the standard, ultra-processed shortcuts because our goal wasn't just to create a convenient snack – it was to deliver genuine, science-led nourishment for gut health.”

Amati said snacking should not just be about filling a hunger gap, it should be considered an opportunity to nourish.