Microbiological Testing of Probiotic Preparations

Anna Zawistowska-Rojek, Tomasz Zaręba and Stefan Tyski
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Anna Zawistowska-Rojek: Department of Antibiotics and Microbiology, National Medicines Institute, Chełmska 30/34, 00-725 Warsaw, Poland
Tomasz Zaręba: Department of Antibiotics and Microbiology, National Medicines Institute, Chełmska 30/34, 00-725 Warsaw, Poland
Stefan Tyski: Department of Antibiotics and Microbiology, National Medicines Institute, Chełmska 30/34, 00-725 Warsaw, Poland

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 9, 1-19

Abstract: Probiotic microorganisms that are potentially beneficial to the health of the host are commercially available in a great variety of products. Not all microorganism strains present in products have proven beneficial to the health properties. These products include not only foodstuffs but also dietary supplements, food for special medical purposes, medicinal products, as well as cosmetics and medical devices. These products contain from one to a dozen bacterial strains of the same or different species and sometimes also fungal strains. Since the pro-health effects of probiotics depend on a specific strain, the number of its cells in a dose, and the lack of pathogenic microorganisms, it is extremely important to control the quality of probiotics. Depending on the classification of a given product, its form, and its content of microorganisms, the correct determination of the number of microorganisms and their identification is crucial. This article describes the culture-dependent and culture-independent methods for testing the contents of probiotic microorganisms, in addition to biochemical and genetic methods of identification. The microbiological purity requirements for various product categories are also presented. Due to numerous reports on the low quality of probiotic products available on the market, it is important to standardise research methods for this group of products and to increase the frequency of inspections of these products.

Keywords: probiotic products; probiotic viability; probiotic identification; live biotherapeutic products; microbial contaminants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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