December 14/Hoersholm, Denmark/Press Release -- An alliance project involving Chr. Hansen and Fresh Beverages International makes it possible for producers of non-refrigerated beverages to add probiotics to their drinks.

For decades, people all over the world have been supplementing with probiotics through their consumption of probiotic yoghurt and other products in the refrigerated dairy category containing the beneficial bacteria. However, due to insurmountable challenges with the survival of the live probiotic bacteria in beverages kept at ambient temperature, the non-refrigerated beverage category has always been non-probiotic territory. Until now.

“We are very pleased to be able to bring the powerful health benefits of our best-selling probiotic strain Bifidobacterium BB-12 to an entirely new product segment,” says Chr. Hansen’s Lars Bredmose, marketing director, Probiotic Cultures.

“BB-12 is one of the world’s best documented and most widely used probiotic strains. It is trusted by millions of consumers of dairy and food supplements all over the world to bring benefits in digestive and immune health - in an entirely natural form. The partnership with Fresh Beverages International offers a convenient way for beverage producers to offer probiotics in virtually any type of drink.”

“The Shinsen Cap is an easy-to-use dosing cap suitable for even the most sensitive ingredients such as BB-12 and other functional or sensitive ingredients,” says James McCormack, managing director, Fresh Beverages International which has more than 10 years of commercial experience producing and developing dosing caps.

Shinsen was developed in Japan and quite literally means “fresh” in Japanese. Fresh Beverage International’s superior, patented “seal and gas flushing technology” provides a unique air tight, light tight and water tight environment, providing the highest quality protection for functional ingredients like BB-12. The probiotic culture is kept fresh in the Shinsen Cap up until the point of consumption -- a simple twist releases the probiotics into the beverage. As a result, consumers can now get the maximum benefit of the probiotic BB-12 in their freshly made beverage.

The Shinsen Cap was also designed with simplicity in mind. “Simplicity for the consumer – a simple twist & shake - and simplicity for the beverage industry - allowing for high speed production and a new, commercially viable beverage technology, thus opening the door to a new world of possibilities in functional beverages,” concludes James McCormack.

The combination of the Shinsen Cap and a patented formulation of BB-12 powder offers a shelflife of at least one year at ambient temperature, a company release notes.

“The long shelflife is key to entering this segment where distribution is independent of cooling chains and point-of-sale is outside the in-store refrigerators,” says Lars Bredmose. “We believe that this solution combines the need for probiotics with superior clinical documentation with high stability and convenience.”