Mazzantini Diletta, Calvigioni Marco, Celandroni Francesco, Lupetti Antonella, Ghelardi Emilia
Department of Translational Research and New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Research Center Nutraceuticals and Food for Health-Nutrafood, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy.
Front Microbiol. 2021 Jul 20;12:693973. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.693973. eCollection 2021.
On the worldwide market, a great number of probiotic formulations are available to consumers as drugs, dietary supplements, and functional foods. For exerting their beneficial effects on host health, these preparations should contain a sufficient amount of the indicated living microbes and be pathogen-free to be safe. Therefore, the contained microbial species and their amount until product expiry are required to be accurately reported on the labels. While commercial formulations licensed as drugs are subjected to rigorous quality controls, less stringent regulations are generally applied to preparations categorized as dietary supplements and functional foods. Many reports indicated that the content of several probiotic formulations does not always correspond to the label claims in terms of microbial identification, number of living organisms, and purity, highlighting the requirement for more stringent quality controls by manufacturers. The main focus of this review is to provide an in-depth overview of the microbiological quality of probiotic formulations commercialized worldwide. Many incongruences in the compositional quality of some probiotic formulations available on the worldwide market were highlighted. Even if manufacturers carry at least some of the responsibility for these inconsistencies, studies that analyze probiotic products should be conducted following recommended and up-to-date methodologies.
Front Microbiol. 2021-7-20
Front Med (Lausanne). 2018-3-7
Methods Mol Biol. 2019
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022-5-7
Probiotics Antimicrob Proteins. 2022-4
Int J Food Sci. 2025-4-14
Int J Mol Sci. 2025-1-23
Microbiome Res Rep. 2024-9-10
Nature. 2024-12-5
Probiotics Antimicrob Proteins. 2024-11-25
Microorganisms. 2024-10-15
Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr. 2022
Methods Mol Biol. 2021
BMJ Case Rep. 2020-12-22
Front Immunol. 2020-9-25
Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2020-8-10
Int J Syst Evol Microbiol. 2020-4-15
Fungal Genet Biol. 2020-4