March 9/Tokyo/Business Wire -- Morinaga Milk Industry Co. Ltd. announced it has received a no objection letter from FDA in response to its GRAS notification for the proprietary probiotic strain Bifidobacterium longum BB536. The official FDA affirmation that the ingredient is GRAS paves the way for the highly researched probiotic to be included in functional foods.
"BB536 has been used by Morinaga in our own food products with great success for more than 30 years and has been sold as a raw material to clients overseas in more than 30 countries for use in food and supplements," said Tohru Imamura, general manager of Morinaga's International Department. "We are very excited that its newly achieved GRAS status will allow U.S. manufacturers to bring the digestive benefits of BB536 to the American public."