A Probiotic Niche
Within the last few years, some of the nation’s leading food manufacturers have set out to turn conventional wisdom on its head.
Until recently, the pressing concern was keeping bacteria out of food products. Now many food manufacturers are exploring creative ways to put so-called “friendly” bacteria into their products.
Probiotics is the preferred term for these friendly bacteria. Probiotic products already are carving out a huge niche on supermarket shelves — and within the American consumer conscience too.
Probiotic products manufactured by major names such as Dannon and Kraft, already are turning up on grocery store shelves all over the country and are spanning a wide gamut of products, everything from supplement pills, yogurts and smoothies to snack bars and cereals, the Associated Press reported recently.
Indeed, some 150 different types of probiotics and “prebiotics” — a closely related product containing fiber and nutrients that feed priobiotic bacteria — now are available for commercial sale in the United States. Retail sales of probiotic-containing foods and supplements totaled some $764 million in 2005 and are expected to reach roughly $1 billion in 2010, Associated Press reports.
These products also have gained a firm market toehold across the planet, already representing a multibillion-dollar global industry.
But can probiotics do what they claim to do — everything from preventing gastroenteritis and diarrhea to alleviating skin reactions? In the view of many, the jury is still out, though some experts concede that they could help, at least, in theory.
Fully aware of the potential appeal of probiotics among an increasingly health-obsessed consumer public, the National Institutes of Health already has asserted that the study of gastrointestinal bacteria and probiotics will be a major research initiative in coming years.
A major challenge associated with probiotics may involve finding a way to calibrating the dose properly — knowing how much is enough or, for that matter, how much is too much — according to Dr. Jean Weese, an Alabama Cooperative Extension System food safety specialist and Auburn University professor of nutrition and food science.
Simply put, they may learn that there is an optimal level of effectiveness associated with probiotics, just as there is with vitamins.
In the end, she says, what we learn about probiotics will seem a lot like what we already know about vitamins.
Actually, the concept behind probiotics isn’t that new. Many doctors, in fact, routinely encourage people to consume the human equivalent of these foods -- sweet acidophilus milk and yogurt, for example -- to offset the problems often associated with antibiotic use. That’s because antibiotics, in addition to taking out viruses, eliminate many of the good bacteria associated with digestion and elimination. Indigestion and irregularity often follow.
People can cope with these problems by consuming acidophilus milk and other bacteria-enhancing products, which create conditions in the stomach and intestinal tract within which good bacteria thrive.
“Medical science has known for a long time about competitive inhibition --- the notion that good bacteria fight off bad bacteria,” Weese says. “So by drinking buttermilk or sweet acidophilus milk, you provide your good bacteria with the competitive edge they need to get back into the game after being beaten back by the antibiotics.”
Posted by Jim Langcuster at December 11, 2007 12:53 PM