Fiore Walter, Arioli Stefania, Guglielmetti Simone
Division of Food Microbiology and Bioprocesses, Department of Food, Environmental and Nutritional Sciences, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy.
Microorganisms. 2020 Aug 3;8(8):1177. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8081177.
Producers of probiotic products are legally required to indicate on the label only the minimum numbers of viable microorganisms at the end of shelf life expressed as colony-forming units (CFUs). Label specifications, however, describe only a fraction of the actual microbiological content of a probiotic formulation. This paper describes the microbiological components of a probiotic product that are not mentioned on the label, such as the actual number of CFUs, the presence of viable cells that cannot generate colonies on agar plates, and the abundance of dead cells. These "hidden" microbial fractions in probiotic products, the abundance of which may change during the shelf life, can promote biological responses in the host. Therefore, they should not be ignored because they may influence the efficacy and can be relevant for immunocompromised or fragile consumers. In conclusion, we propose the minimum requirements for microbiological characterization of probiotic products to be adopted for label specifications and clinical studies.
益生菌产品生产商在法律上被要求在标签上仅标明保质期结束时以菌落形成单位（CFU）表示的最低活菌数。然而，标签规范仅描述了益生菌制剂实际微生物含量的一部分。本文描述了益生菌产品标签上未提及的微生物成分，例如实际的CFU数量、在琼脂平板上不能形成菌落的活细胞的存在以及死细胞的数量。益生菌产品中的这些“隐藏”微生物部分，其数量在保质期内可能会发生变化，可促进宿主的生物学反应。因此，不应忽视它们，因为它们可能会影响功效，并且对免疫功能低下或脆弱的消费者可能具有相关性。总之，我们提出了益生菌产品微生物特征描述的最低要求，以供标签规范和临床研究采用。
