The Institut said the LAFTI range, which it maintains has proven survival in the GI tract, during processing and in food products, will complement its existing probiotics portfolio targeting gut health, immunology, as well as women’s and children’s health.
The DSM developed probiotic range includes the strains Lactobacillus acidophilus LAFTI L10 (L10), Lactobacillus casei LAFTI L26 (L26), and Bifidobacterium animalis lactis LAFTI B94 (B94), which have been in use in both dietary supplements as well as dairy applications over the past six years.
Oliver Clech, VP of Lallemand Human and Animal Nutrition, said that one of the LAFTI strains, Bifidobacterium animalis lactis, offers the French-Canadian company new areas of probiotic application such as sports health and athlete recovery.
And the Institut said clinical evidence supports the L10 strain with a human trial on 285 participants using the probiotic of diary origin indicating a reduction in cold and flu symptoms and a decreased reliance on medication.
Joseph Haddad, medical director of Institut Rosell-Lallemand, told this publication previously that the probiotics industry needs to invest more in R&D and state-of-the-art clinical trials to find out and support the most efficient strains. He said: “Some companies are already well positioned, but overall a lot of investment is still required.
“The challenge is really to demonstrate that the industry is not dealing with ‘simple good bacteria’ but that probiotics should be considered as living drugs, backed up by strong clinical evidence.”
The acquisition by Institut Rosell Lallemand comes in the wake of the negative opinions issued by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) last week for 94 article 13.1 probiotic strain submissions to go with 191 article 13.1 rejections in October.
EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) has yet to issue a probiotic-based positive opinion, although all but a handful of the rejections have been a result of the NDA deeming the strains uncharacterised.
Therefore, in those cases it did not scrutinise the gut health, immunity and other health benefit data contained in the dossiers.
Ioannis Misopoulos, director general of the International Probiotics Association (IPA), said that the NDA preference for human intervention studies on healthy populations was flawed.
“It can take three years to get these kinds of human studies together but in the meantime the claims are going to be wiped away,” he said. “The regulation is killing this industry and the job losses are already being felt. We’ve had enough of EFSA’s process as it stands and so are considering our options.”
An EFSA spokesperson said its methods were transparent and well-publicised, including the appointment of NPA panel members who each serve three year terms and declared all conflicts of interest at the point of consideration.
The NDA panel sought external, expert advice if they felt it necessary and had done so in the area of probiotics, she said.