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There is money to be made doling out ‘healthy’ bacteria. Probiotics is the name of the game

It could not have been a coincidence that both Nestle and Mother Dairy announced their foray into the market with huge ads in the capital on the same day.

While Nestle India has introduced Nesvita dahi(curd), Mother Dairy, the wholly-owned subsidiary of National Dairy Development Board, has rolled out its ‘b-active’ curd in the national capital region (NCR). Meanwhile, Yakult-Danone, a 50:50 joint venture between Yakult Hoshma of Japan and Groupe Danone of France, is gearing up to launch its probiotic health drink under the brand name Yakult in the Indian market. Amul, the major player in this segment, has already registered its intentions with the national launch of its probiotic ice-cream Pro-life in January and the launch of probiotic lassi in Ahmedabad.

Yakult-Danone India is setting up a manufacturing facility in Haryana with an investment of Rs 136 crore and targets to sell 1 million bottles of Yakult per day in 3 to 5 years. Mother Dairy, before the launch of its probiotic curd, unleashed a huge media campaign with the tag-line “happy tummy to you”, and even engaged doctors to talk about the usefulness of consuming probiotic products.

These companies are leading the all out race to target the growing breed of health-conscious urban consumers, who do not mind shelling out a few rupees more in return for better health.

DARE/global players

1 Arla 2 BioGaia Biologics 3 Chr Hansen 4 ConAgra Functional Foods 5 Danisco 6 Groupe Danone 7 Nestle 8 Yakult

Friendly bacteria?
Probiotic refers to dietary supplements or foods that contain beneficial or good bacteria normally found in your body. These microorganisms may assist with digestion or help protect against some harmful bacteria. There is increasing scientific interest in this, with researchers studying whether probiotic products taken as foods or supplements can help treat or prevent certain illnesses.

“Probiotic refers to food products which carry friendly bacteria primarily Lactobacilli, which are considered healthy for our digestive system,” says Ishi Khosla, a Delhi-based dietician.

Probiotics forms part of the larger segment of functional food or medicinal food, which according to the Wikipedia, is any fresh or processed food claimed to have a health-promoting and/or disease-preventing property beyond the basic nutritional function of supplying nutrients, although there is no consensus on an exact definition of the term.

An interesting study carried out in Sweden examined its ability to improve work-place healthiness by reducing short-term sick-leave caused by respiratory or gastrointestinal infections. The study showed that prophylactic use of the probiotic lactobacillus reuteri could reduce the number of sick days at work.

Only for the rich?

You don’t have to be a big multinational to create probiotic products. Take the example of Karnal-based Indian Dairy Research Institute (IDRI), which has tried out the production of probiotic curd, which is sold at a small outlet in the institute. “We all know that curd contains good bacteria and it is prepared using culture. Probiotics is just about certain special bacterial cultures….isolated and preserved under certain conditions. After entering the body, these bacteria colonise in the stomach and intestines and help curb acidity,” says S J Goswami, Joint Director (Research) at IDRI.

According to another senior person in the dairy industry, probiotics is just a value-addition to our traditional method of making curd. Certain bacterial strains of lactobacilli fermented under specific conditions leads to the preparation of probiotic products. He claimed that he had been consuming probiotic curd for the last two years while his unit was experimenting, “and it solved my acidity problem.”

DARE/Indian major
Amul	ProLife ice-cream
Mother Dairy	b-Active curd
Nestle	NesVita Curd
Yakult-Danone	Yakult health drink (to be launched)

Meanwhile, some people in the dairy industry view the “probiotic” campaign as a marketing gimmick, only targeted at the rich urban population. However, dietician Khosla does not believe that the sudden spurt in the launch of Probiotic products is just plain marketing. “There are studies to support the fact that probiotic products are useful to the human body,” she says. “Today’s lifestyle, loaded with stress and coupled with the use of alcohol, irregular eating and sleeping habits, heavy use of allopathic medicines and antibiotics, leads to growth of unfriendly organisms in our bodies. This has increased the need for healthy food such as probiotic dairy products.”

Market potential

Although probiotics is a new concept in India, it is one of the fastest growing functional food markets worldwide. Globally, the market for probiotic products is estimated at $14 billion. In the US alone, more than 100 companies market probiotic products in supplement forms. The US market is forecast to touch $394 million in 2010 while the European market may reach $137 million, according to estimates by Frost & Sullivan.

A source in the dairy industry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the offtake of probiotic dahi has been 25 per cent in Delhi.

In India, probiotics has made its appearance in dairy products. However, in the US, the “good” effects of the friendly bacteria have been extended to granola, candy bars, frozen yogurt, cereals and cookies. It is believed that probiotic bacteria can survive only in fermented and refrigerated conditions as it gets destroyed by heat and other processing conditions. Yet if properly stored, the bacteria can remain viable in dried form and reach the intestine alive when consumed. Thus the bacteria can be introduced in cereals and candy bars as well. Kashi, a food products company, last year announced the launch of Kashi Vive Probiotic Digestive Wellness Cereal, which the company claimed was the only shelf-stable probiotic food in the US market.

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