Several products have sprung up recently claiming that they can prevent the worst next-day effects of drinking, but ZBiotics Company’s is the first to utilize genetically modified probiotics to help with hangover symptoms.
Launched on Aug. 15, ZBiotics claims its beverage — which the company proudly touts is derived from GMOs — mimics an enzyme in your liver that breaks down acetaldehyde, a byproduct of alcohol consumption that in part causes hangovers. Taken either before or during your drinking session, ZBiotics replicates this liver enzyme in your gut.
“It’s meant to support your body while drinking,” Zack Abbott, Zbiotics’ co-founder and CEO and a Ph.D. microbiologist, told The Spoon Friday. But, he warned, “it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card.” Meaning, you still have to hydrate and get a good night’s rest to stave off a hangover (until there’s hangover-free booze, that is).
ZBiotics recently debuted in brick-and-mortar stores via b8ta. The beverage will be found in the San Francisco, New York City and Chicago locations, and eventually a pop-up store in Miami opening in December. Abbott said that the store’s format, which presents information on the products on tablets that can be changed by companies in real time, “is a great opportunity” for ZBiotics to tell its story.
“The challenge for our product is it’s in a field where there’s a lot of snake oil,” he said. “The category has credibility issues. [With ZBiotics,] there’s a level of technology that hasn’t been brought to this part of the market.”
That tech, genetic modification, has its share of skeptics. But Abbott hopes that ZBiotics, a 3.5-year-old Y Combinator graduate that has raised $3.4 million in funding, will help create more GMO supporters.
“The problem has been that most people are only hearing one side of the story,” he said. “People walk down the aisle of the grocery store and see this ‘No GMOs’ label. So what are people to think? Our goal is to provide more information and be transparent. That’s the foundation of what we call GMO 2.0. We use the technology responsibly. We test our product and publish our results. We think consumers will be excited by the opportunities that GMOs provide.”
With Impossible Foods, which is made with genetically modified heme, becoming popular, Abbott is right in that perceptions seem to be changing. And if GMOs can prevent people from feeling miserable after a night of drinking, they may change even sooner.
One problem. And it’s a big problem. The enzyme will be broken down by the digestive system and will therefore provide no benefit whatsoever. It is virtually snake oil, but with reasonable sounding science behind it. Either the company is full of people who are smart enough to make a recombinant enzyme beverage but too dumb to know that it won’t work, or they are just taking advantage of a general public that will trust them. Disappointing.
Hi Robert, thanks for your comment. As a matter of fact, we solved that problem! The enzyme is being expressed internally in the live bacteria in your gut. The enzyme is not secreted outside of the bacteria into the lumen of the gut (where it may have been susceptible to protease degradation, as you suggest), but instead, the substrate acetaldehyde is imported into the bacterial cell for removal. This strategy is stronger because that way the enzyme is not only protected from degradation, but also it has all the cofactor it needs to degrade acetaldehyde and is kept at the appropriate pH for function.