Experts Confirm GRAS Status for Lallemand’s ProbioKid Formula

30 May 2017 --- Lallemand's ProbioKid and its specific probiotic strains by yeast and bacteria specialists have been recognized as safe in the US and Canada. Confirming GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status, an expert panel has recognized that both the ProbioKid formula and individual probiotic strains (Lactobacillus helveticus Rosell-52, Bifidobacterium infantis Rosell-33, Bifidobacterium bifidum Rosell71) are safe for infants and children. This includes their use in infant formula.

This follows approval from Canadian authorities which had already backed specific health claims including the fact that it “Helps to reinforce the body’s natural defenses in children” for infants aged more than six months.

Those claims have been extended for infants aged over three months, based on new complementary safety studies.

Solange Henoud, Regulatory Affairs Director, says “Not only these achievements are key for the North American markets but they also can be seen as a global recognition of our strains safety in babies, being a vulnerable population. In their opinion report, the scientific experts mentioned that “other qualified and competent scientists reviewing the same publicly available information would reach the same conclusion.”

Bérengère Feuz, Marketing Manager echoes these sentiments. 
“This recognition from the North American authorities is the validation of our track record of safe use of our ProbioKid formula as it has been marketed for around 15 years around the world under various local brand names, with great market success stories like in China where it has been the best-selling probiotic formula for children since 2003.”

ProbioKid benefits from several pre-clinical and clinical studies showing its ability to help balance the immune response (Th1/Th2), to reduce the incidence of infectious episodes in children during winter, and to help support their immune response, probably by favoring immune maturity (Cazzola, 2010; Pantovic 2012). More recently a study showed its effects in controlling the incidence of wheezing and respiratory infections in at-risk children during a three-month intervention, with persisting effects for up to nine months after the supplementation.