Over the last couple of months our focus has been on the bad “bugs” that could be present in your supplements. However, not all bugs are bad! Probiotics are the good “bugs” that could be your consumer’s best friend. Probiotics occur naturally in our body, but certain factors such as antibiotics, stress, poor diet, and even aging can diminish their presence and our body. When this decrease occurs our bodies need a bit of a boost to keep a healthy balance. You may find yourself asking why these little organisms living in mainly our intestines are so important to our bodies. This is because they enhance the intestines’ barrier function, compete with and suppress pathogenic bacteria, and modulates and stimulates immune system activity.1 So, when your consumers turn to your product to help provide the much needed probiotic boost are they receiving the product they think they are?
When you begin the discussion of probiotic testing, it can be a very worrisome topic; however, SORA Labs is here to help you out! Many probiotic testing methods are very vendor specific. This means that where and who you purchase your probiotic raw materials from is a major deciding factor as to how they are tested. Due to the many strains and their unique characteristics, there is not a single method that will provide an accurate, true representation of the enumeration of multiple strains in a finished product. Once they are blended together, you can try testing each strain by the method most suitable for it; however, some overlap may occur providing inaccurate numbers. Therefore, SORA Labs recommends the testing of single strain raw ingredients to ensure that you are putting what you think you are into your products. SORA Labs has the capabilities of performing many of the vendor methods and we are always expanding our testing capabilities. If you have a probiotic product that needs to be tested, please feel free to contact us!
Reference:
1: Fedorak RN, Madsen KL. Probiotics and the management of inflammatory bowel disease. Inflamm Bowel Dis. 2004 May;10(3):286-99. VIA http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2009/1/optimize-digestive-health/page-01
2: http://www.webmd.com/digestive-disorders/features/what-are-probiotics
