The formulation mixes Lactobacillus rhamnosus HN001 and Lactobacillus acidohphilus La-14 strains with lactoferrin to promote immune, mood and vaginal benefits for women during foetal and postnatal periods.
“At DuPont, we’re focused on improving people’s lives and we’re especially excited to introduce a product that has clinical benefits for such a critical time in life – during pregnancy,” said Anders Gron, DuPont vice president & global business director- probiotics, HMOs, and fibres.
The Denmark-based firm believe the product is an opportunity to improve the health in pregnant women, a particularly sensitive population, particularly during the first 1000 days of early life.
Thee term has been defined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a “window of opportunity” for a person’s growth and development, specially the 280-day foetal period and 720 days after birth.
In these 1000 days, parental nutrition intake relates to the baby’s growth and cognitive ability as well as foetal and immune system development after birth.
Clinical human trials show both mothers and babies benefit from probiotic dietary supplementation during pregnancy, birth and beyond.
Probiotics in Pregnancy
L. rhamnosus HN001, in particular is a strain that in the ‘Probiotics in Pregnancy Study’ exhibited immune benefits for infants.
HN001 supplementation may also have health benefits for mothers as further research found 400 pregnant women on this regimen had a lower gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) prevalence and a lower incidence of postnatal depression and anxiety.
Additional clinical show a reduction of eczema prevalence in children up to age 11 in the probiotic groups compared to the placebo. In addition, at ages 6 and 11, there were significant reductions in allergic sensitisation scores.
As well as DuPont, a number of large firms have begun to make available probiotic solutions that cater to the needs of women during pregnancy.
Swedish bioengineering company Probi and its FerroSorb platform, which contains the Lactobacillus plantarum 299v strain along with iron, vitamin C and folic acid, claims to improve iron status in pregnant women
Meanwhile food giants Nestlé launched a probiotic solution for lactating mothers to help reduce the risk of breast pain and mastitis and allow them to continue breastfeeding.
The product, Materna Opti-Lac contains a patented unique probiotic strain L. fermentum LC40, which is naturally found in the breastmilk of healthy mums.
Business structure strategy
Earlier last month DuPont bosses agreed to merge its Nutrition & Health and Industrial Biosciences Businesses to form a €5.6bn Nutrition & Biosciences business unit.
Spread across 70 manufacturing sites and 25 innovation centres worldwide, the unit is headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark and has 10,000 employees spread across the globe.
Further afield, DuPont opened a probiotics fermentation unit in Rochester, New York in March of this year, as part of a €89m multiphase investment to expand DuPont’s probiotics capacity by up to 70%.
The unit will enhance the company’s ability to deliver good quality, clinically documented probiotics ingredients for food and beverage and dietary supplements manufacturers
