July 31, 2017
The Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) and the International Probiotics Association (IPA) are calling for manufacturers of probiotic products to raise the bar for labeling, storing and stability testing as an industry standard. Natren wrote the book quite literally on many of the industry labeling guidelines. Now, these organizations are asking other companies to finally meeting the standard Natren set for itself years ago. The goal is to provide consumers not only with better products but enhanced transparency and improved consistency, as well. It’s a move that Natren supports fully because it’s what we already do and have been doing.... [Read More...]
The post Probiotic Industry Leaders Push for More Standards: Natren has met these all along! appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
September 26, 2016
Did you know that your gut is an ecosystem for bacteria? It’s a concept that can get lost when consumers consider the benefits of probiotics. More is not really the point of a successful ecosystem – balance is the objective. When living organisms compete for resources, they must fight to survive. In science, this is known as antagonistic – two or more species fight to thrive in one ecosystem. Bacteria are naturally antagonistic, so when placed in the same system they don’t play well together. What happens when bacteria don’t get along? The Problem with Multi-Strain Products If you were.... [Read More...]
The post When Bacteria Don’t Get Along: The Multi-Strain Problem appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
July 22, 2014
Probiotics have become one of the more fashionable buzzwords in the healthy living community – and for good reason. True probiotics offer a host of notable benefits, particularly for healthy digestion and strong natural defenses. Lately though, many consumer products are boasting the label of “probiotics” without being rooted in fact or function. A true probiotic is a living bacterial culture that has been identified by scientific research to provide health benefits. As well as being alive and active, a product must contain a certain amount of probiotics to be effective, and those bacteria strains have to be the right.... [Read More...]
The post Probiotics, Household Products, and Snake Oil appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
June 09, 2014
It’s easy to read the label of a product and find out what’s in it – whether it contains additives or preservatives – but if you want to know whether the ingredients have been genetically engineered, you’re out of luck. There’s currently no labeling requirement for products made with genetically-modified ingredients, or GMOs. Genetically modified organisms are animals or plants that have had their DNA, the genetic material that codes for their most fundamental characteristics, altered. What’s the purpose? To produce plants and organisms with some survival, yield or nutritional advantage – resistance to pesticides for example. GMOs aren’t proven.... [Read More...]
The post The Push for Required GMO Labeling appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
May 09, 2014
[If you are looking for Part 1 of this story, you can find it here] Did you know that you can launch your own probiotic product line with no scientific experience whatsoever? No measurement of effectiveness, no study of how the bacteria interact with each other, and no study of potency through to consumption by the consumer. Well, you can, and we’ll show you exactly how to do it: 1) Secure sufficient funding to place a commercial sized order 2) Gather a marketing team to create tantalizing taglines like “Now with 20 probiotic strains to boost your digestive health” 3).... [Read More...]
The post Truth in Labeling: Regulation of Probiotics – Part 2 appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
May 05, 2014
We rely a lot on regulatory authorities to help ensure that products we consume are safe and good for us. We depend upon the FDA to make sure that drug manufacturers are properly regulated and their products are safe, and we trust the USDA to keep our food safe and adequately labeled, so we know exactly what we are eating, and that it too is safe. For instance – you may have noticed small labels on fruit & veg at the grocery stores – sometimes stuck to the produce with impossible-to-remove glue! Well, those labels have a 4 or 5-digit.... [Read More...]
The post Truth in Labeling: Regulation of Probiotics – Part 1 appeared first on Natren Probiotics Blog.
