Probiotics: issues of credibility and safety

Abstract

People have believed for more than a century that live microorganisms in foods may benefit human health. More recently, probiotics have appealed to consumers who want nutritional products with added health attributes. The demonstration of efficacy in probiotics thus offers vast opportunities for the development of human and veterinary products. However, the addition of novel bacterial strains to foods and therapeutic products presents a challenge in safety assessment for regulatory authorities. Probiotic products which claim specific nutritional, functional or therapeutic characteristics blur the boundaries of what is a food, a diet supplement or a medicine.