Evaluation of Commercial Probiotic Products

Abstract

Although there is a vast number of probiotic products commercially available due to their acceptability and increasing usage, their quality control has continuously been a major concern. This study aimed to assess some commercially available probiotics on the UK market for content in relation to their label claim. Seven products were used for the study. The bacteria content were isolated, identified and enumerated on selective media. The results revealed that all products evaluated contained viable probiotic bacteria but only three out of the seven products (43%) contained the claimed culture concentration or more. None of the multispecies product contained all the labelled probiotic bacteria. Misidentification of some species occurred. The results concurred with previous studies and showed that quality issues with commercial probiotics remain. Since probiotic activity is linked with probiotic concentration and is strain specific, the need exist for a global comprehensive legislation to control the quality of probiotics whose market is gaining huge momentum.

How to Cite

Fredua-Agyeman, M., Parab, S. & Gaisford, S., (2016) “Evaluation of Commercial Probiotic Products”, British Journal of Pharmacy 1(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.5920/bjpharm.2016.11

1272

Views

312

Downloads

4

Citations

Share

Authors

Mansa Fredua-Agyeman (UCL)
Shruti Parab (UCL)
Simon Gaisford (UCL)

Download

Issue

Dates

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0

Identifiers

Peer Review

This article has been peer reviewed.

File Checksums (MD5)

  • PDF: 1c769f92c0b850c7f1dd030e9799e405