Choosing a probiotic can be difficult if you do not know what to look for, so here is our guide.

Probiotics are one of the fastest growing ingredients today, and more and more consumers are becoming aware of these natural cultures. At the same time consumers are increasingly concerned about staying healthy – physically as well as mentally. Quality of life is essential – we want to be fit, active and able to live the good life – and the focus on healthy living covers the entire lifespan: from a good start in life, continuing through healthy and normal development, to maintaining good health at an old age.

In emerging economies such as Brazil the potential for probiotics is tremendous. During the past few years Brazil has experienced double-digit growth in the probiotic segment, making it an attractive market for dietary supplements producers.

At Chr. Hansen we have been fermenting lactic acid bacteria for more than a century and working with clinically documented probiotics for more than 25 years. In this article we will share key considerations when it comes to probiotic products and hope you will find them useful. Our main goal is to support our customers and partners with superior probiotic portfolios and business success in probiotics.

What determines the quality of a probiotic product?
It begins with the probiotics it contains. We have one of the largest culture banks in the world and carefully select the bacteria with the most promising characteristics. As a result, we offer clinically documented probiotic strains with great stability, so they remain alive and may exert their beneficial influence within the body right until the end of shelf life.

1. Strains over species
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), probiotics are “Live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host". Probiotics are identified at three levels: Genus, species and strain. Studies show that the health benefits are strain-specific and only rarely apply to species. Therefore you need to look for strain names. An example of a probiotic strain is: Lactobacillus acidophilus (LA-5®). If we zoom in, you can see the three levels:

• Lactobacillus = genus
• acidophilus = species
• (LA-5®) = strain

2. Documentation
Next, you need to ensure that the probiotic strain is supported by documentation. FAO/WHO highlights that “…randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled human trials should be undertaken to establish the efficacy of the probiotic product”¹. The documentation supporting the probiotic strain will allow you to find out about the positive effect it may have and decide whether that particular probiotic area is relevant to you.

The best documented probiotic strains
Most probiotic bacteria belong to the Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium genera. At Chr. Hansen we offer a selection of well-documented probiotic strains, including the world’s best documented strains of Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium:

• Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG®)
  Accounting for more than 1000² scientific publications and more than 300² clinical studies Lactobacillus rhamnosus (LGG®) is the world’s best documented Lactobacillus
  
  
• Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis (BB-12®)
  Backed by 307² scientific publications out of which more than 180² are clinical studies, Bifidobacterium (BB-12®) is the world’s best documented Bifidobacterium

We are constantly working to provide a deeper understanding and further clinical substantiation for the probiotic strains that we offer.

3. Stability is key
Stability is an industry challenge in the production, handling and storage of probiotics. Stability is crucial in probiotic products because the probiotic bacteria must be alive when consumed according to the definition of probiotics. This means that it is necessary to keep the probiotics stable at all times, so the consumer can be absolutely sure that the probiotic product delivers on its promise – right to the end of its shelf life.

The potency of a probiotic product is measured in Colony Forming Units (CFU), and you should therefore make sure that the guaranteed number of CFU at the end of shelf life is listed on the product packaging, so you know how many live bacteria it contains.

The “enemies” of stability
Water activity, temperature and oxygen are the three factors influencing the stability – and hence shelf life – of a probiotic product. The more probiotics are exposed to high humidity, high temperatures, or high levels of oxygen, the less stable they become and begin to “die off”. Therefore it is important to be able to control all the steps of the production process and ensure ideal conditions for stability.

Delivering probiotics that last
Our probiotic solutions are “built” to last. We can provide stability data from the raw material all the way to packed consumer product at relevant storage conditions in order to secure a good shelf life of the product. To maximize the shelf life of our products, we focus not only on the probiotic strain, but also on the excipients, the handling of raw materials, production processes and recommendation of the final packaging. We measure on the parameters oxygen, temperature and water activity, and our entire production set-up is focused on providing you with stable probiotics:

• Screening and selecting the right probiotic strains and knowing how best to care for them
• Producing the probiotics in the gentlest way possible without stressing them
• Suggesting and selecting the optimal dosage form and packaging which can sustain the live probiotics in the final consumer product
• Recommending and maintaining ideal storage conditions

Always 2 years at 25°C (= 77°F)
All Chr. Hansen's probiotic solutions offer end-of-shelf-life stability at 25°C for 2 years.

Market-leading 3 years at 30°C (= 86°F) for selected products
A new industry benchmark for stability has been launched by Chr. Hansen - now offering 3 years' stability at 30°C (= 86°F) for a variety of final consumer products. We call it Superior Stability. This means that Chr. Hansen probiotic strains can tolerate more stressful conditions like high temperatures for a longer period of time:

• Documented shelf life of 3 years at 30°C (= 86°F) in consumer packaging

[One of the two - in both cases with an ®]

Want to learn more?
Please contact us for more information. We can help guide you to the right probiotic strains for your products.

Chr. Hansen A/S, Boege Allé 10-12, 2970 Hoersholm, Denmark

Brian Peeters, Business Development Manager, Latin America
Tel.: Office phone : +1 (510) 842-8736, Mobile phone : +1 (415) 439-9521
Email: usbpe@chr-hansen.com

www.chr-hansen.com/probiotics