Although probiotics are often celebrated for their beneficial effects on gut health, immune function, and metabolism, there remain challenges for their use in real-life applications. While the outcomes continue to look promising, probiotics may not reach their full potential as a therapeutic modality, partly due to scientific, physiological, and regulatory limitations.
Challenges in Harnessing Probiotics for Health Benefits
Although probiotics are often celebrated for their beneficial effects on gut health, immune function, and metabolism, there remain challenges for their use in real-life applications. While the outcomes continue to look promising, probiotics may not reach their full potential as a therapeutic modality, partly due to scientific, physiological, and regulatory limitations.
Common Constraints in Probiotic Use
| Health Challenge | Explanation |
| Strain-Specific Efficacy | Not all probiotics have the same effects. The benefits of specific strain are complex; benefits can be strain or species specific and identifying the specific strain to treat an ailment requires rigorous clinical validity (Binda et al., 2020). |
| Individual Variability | People have unique genetic programming, gut microbiota composition, and diets that alter how they respond to probiotics making it difficult a one fits all approach (Hughes et al., 2019). |
| Low Survival in the GI Tract | Many probiotics are damaged or killed by stomach acid, bile or digestive enzymes before they reach the intestine. Therefore, without using a more advanced encapsulation or resilient strain, the effectiveness of many of probiotics will be very limited. (Jumazhanova et al., 2023). |
| Temporary Effects | Often, the health benefits diminish after supplementation stops. This raises the need for continuous intake or dietary integration for long-term results (Brunin et al., 2022). |
| Regulatory and Safety Issues | In many countries, probiotics are marketed as dietary supplements and not drugs. Regulation around dietary supplements are less stringent than regulations around drugs. Therefore, the inconsistency in composition and efficacy can vary tremendously (de Simone, 2019). |
| Gut Microbiota Interference | Introducing new strains into an already balanced gut can disrupt the microbiome or fail to colonize. This highlights the importance of precision selection to avoid dysbiosis (Plaza-Diaz et al., 2019). |
| Limited Evidence in Some Areas | While digestive benefits are well supported, more data is needed to confirm benefits for mental health, metabolic syndrome, and chronic diseases (Grajek et al., 2022). |
| Probiotic-Prebiotic Interactions | Though prebiotics often enhance probiotic efficacy, their synergistic relationship remains under-researched. More studies are needed to optimize this combination in food systems (Li et al., 2020). |
What’s Next in Probiotic Innovation?
For probiotics to realise their complete therapeutic benefits, future focus must include:
- Understanding personalized nutrition and gut profiling
- Conducting quality clinical trials for multiple co-morbidities
- Continued focus on better delivery methods e.g., encapsulated probiotics, synbiotic systems
- Tighter regulations and quality assurance.
At Food Research Lab, we want to assist innovators in addressing any of the above setbacks:
- Support with ingredient screening and strain checking
- Gut microbiome analysis and efficacy analysis
- FDA guidelines and regulatory support to complete a dossier for global markets.
If you are interested in developing a probiotic or food product based on science, then reach out to us.
Let’s create something Innovative and Delicious together
Food Research Lab strives for excellence in new Food, Beverage and Nutraceutical Product Research and Development by offering cutting edge scientific analysis and expertise.
