February 9/Brussels/Agence France Presse -- After bombarding consumers with a barrage of confusing messages about the health benefits of probiotic bacteria, major players in the world’s highest-selling functional food category admit they may have to concede defeat and that the industry could disappear altogether.
At a Probiotics Summit in Brussels, a spokesman for Danone, the largest fresh dairy product maker in the world, said the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) continuous rejection of health claims by hundreds of applicants offers little hope that the probiotics industry will be able to survive, attendees heard.