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Many studies at home and abroad have shown that probiotics can help people to treat gastrointestinal diseases, relieve lactose intolerance, relieve constipation, lose weight, improve immunity, regulate blood pressure, improve food allergy, and promote health. With the improvement of living standards and the further recognition of probiotics, people's pursuit and expectations for health are getting higher and higher, and probiotics are also increasingly used in food. However, there are various probiotic products on the market. How to correctly distinguish between probiotic common food and probiotic health food brings challenges to consumers.

Definition

Probiotic solid drinks belong to common food, while probiotic health food belongs to special food. Both are defined as follows:

Items	Definition
Probiotic solid drinks	Solid products added with probiotics and processed with food raw and auxiliary materials, food additives, etc., in powder and granule form for preparation or brewing.
Probiotic health food	It refers to the microbial products with probiotics as the main functional ingredient, added with necessary auxiliary materials, and beneficial to human health when ingested in sufficient quantity.

Available bacteria

Items

Available bacteria

Number of living bacteria

Probiotic solid drinks

List of Bacteria Available for Food

GB 7101 China National Standard for Food Safety Beverages stipulates that the number of living lactic acid bacteria (non sterilized) in products added with lactic acid bacteria should be ≥ 106CFU/g (mL);

There is no mandatory requirement for other bacteria.

Probiotic health food

List of Probiotic Available for Health Food
List of Bacteria Available for Food

The number of living bacteria of each kind of bacteria shall not be less than 106CFU/g (mL) within its shelf life.

Claimed functions

Items	Claimed functions
Probiotic solid drinks	It belongs to common food and can not claim health care function or disease prevention and treatment function.
Probiotic health food	It can claim its declared healthcare functions after being approved for registration, such as enhancing immunity and regulating intestinal flora.

Key points of the label

Items

Key points of the label

Probiotic solid drinks

It shall comply with the relevant regulations of GB 7718 General Rules for the Label of Prepackaged Food and GB 7101 Beverages;
It shall comply with the regulations of the Announcement on Strengthening the Quality and Safety Supervision of Solid Drinks: the minimum sales unit of solid drinks directly provided to consumers with edible bacteria added shall be marked with the warning information "This product cannot replace food for special medical purpose, infant formula food, health food and other special food" in the same display panel, and the area shall not be less than 20% of its area. The text of warning information shall be printed in bold type and have an obvious color difference with the background of the warning information area;

Probiotic health food

It shall comply with the regulations of GB 7718 General Rules for the Label of Prepackaged Food;
The label of probiotic health food will clearly indicate the following main information:

“Blue hat” logo;
Specify the “suitable people” and “unsuitable people” of the product;
“Effective ingredients or symbolic ingredients and content”, “consumption amount and method”, etc.;

Listing requirements

Items

Listing requirements

Probiotic solid drinks

According to the requirements of common food, it can be produced and marketed after applying for and obtaining the production license.

Probiotic health food

A series of product hygiene, stability and function evaluation tests must be carried out, and additional safety evaluation tests must be carried out for the strains used. The registration and approval of the China State Administration of Market Supervision shall be obtained before the products are put on the market.

Note: Click to learn about the current situation and application requirements of regulations on probiotic health food in China.

Summary

From the above five aspects, we can know that probiotic solid drinks and probiotic health food are all foods containing probiotics. Probiotic solid drinks belong to common food, and probiotic health food belongs to special food. The entry threshold of probiotic solid drinks on the market is low and no toxicological and functional evaluation tests are required. However, probiotic health food can only be produced and marketed after registration and approval. It has been evaluated by functional experiments before marketing, and the safety and functionality of its strains are supported by scientific data.

Consumers can distinguish between these two types of products by whether they have the "blue hat" logo. While conducting research and development, label design and other works on these two types of products, enterprises should first clearly understand the definition and implementation standards of these two types of food, in order to avoid problems such as functional claims of common food.

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How do you Distinguish Probiotic Solid Drinks from Probiotic Health Food?

Definition

Available bacteria

Claimed functions

Key points of the label

Listing requirements

Summary