Probiotic chewable tablets: Chew ‘for life’!

Chr. Hansen introduces a chewable offering to the growing global market for ‘friendly bacteria’.Chr. Hansen, owner of the market’s strongest portfolio of well-documented probiotic strains, has supplied probiotics for the dietary supplements industry for many years. Now the Danish biotech company extends its product portfolio with probiotics in a chewable tablet dosage format.

Convenience and good taste

“The chewable tablets are intended for all age groups but particularly suitable for children,” says Charlotte Beyerholm, Marketing Manager, Health & Nutrition Division, Chr. Hansen. “This convenient way to easily consume the beneficial probiotic cultures is an exciting alternative to the traditional tablet or capsule. “Today’s consumers appreciate to be able to choose among a number of different dosage formats. Furthermore, this is an opportunity for our customers to differentiate their products from those of their competitors,” continues Charlotte Beyerholm.

Good for gut health and immune system

Probiotics have been studied and used for children for several years and are found safe. Numerous studies in children show good results on both gastrointestinal health and the immune system. A healthy flora in the gut does not only improve gut well-being but also beneficially influences the gut interaction with the immune system.

A growing category

Probiotics — meaning “for life” in Greek — is a fast growing category within dietary supplements and the emerging awareness of the benefits probiotics can convey has led to an increasing interest worldwide.

For the year 2000 there were 174 scientific articles on probiotics to be found in the PubMed search engine of biomedical research articles. For the year 2007 there were 795 articles. Throughout the decade the number of clinical trials registered at www.clinicaltrials.gov has climbed dramatically and so has the number of probiotic product launches. According to GNPD Mintel there were 16 probiotic product launches within dietary supplements in 2002 — and 75 in 2007.

Moderate consumer awareness

Probiotic supplements have been used around the world for at least half a century and today the probiotics category for dietary supplements is growing at an estimated 10-15% annually. But still almost half of Americans indicate that they have never heard of probiotics, according to a recent survey conducted by Harris Interactive. A recent consumer survey conducted by Nutrition Business Journal revealed that while 75% of the U.S. population use multivitamins on a weekly basis, only 25% use probiotics supplements on a weekly basis.

Backed by science

Innovation and documentation make Chr. Hansen stand out as a quality supplier of probiotics. Strain research and selection, published clinical studies, and stringent quality control ensure the effectiveness and safety of Chr. Hansen’s well-known probiotics for dietary supplements and dairy applications — particularly the flagship strains BB12®, LA5® and L.Casei CRL-431®.

Chr. Hansen specializes in probiotics for the following areas:

• Children’s health
• Immune health
• Gastrointestinal health
• Women’s health


Chr. Hansen will be showcasing the probiotic chewable tablets at:
• Supply SideWest 2008, Las Vegas, October 22-24 (booth # 25083)
• Health Ingredients Europe 2008, Paris, November 4-6 (booth # D008).