危机与生机——益生菌标准建设亟待解决

Crisis and life Thinking of the probiotics safety

自90年代初以来，形形色色的“益生菌”类保健品风靡了整个世界。与此同时，“益生菌”的研究业已成为国际上的热门研究课题。益生菌，是“以适当剂量服用时对宿主（人或动物）健康有益的活体微生物制剂”，这一概念是由联合国粮食与农业组织和世界卫生组织共同定义的。益生菌包括双岐杆菌、嗜热链球菌、嗜酸乳杆菌等种类。正是因为益生菌所具有的健康、营养的特殊功效，使其风靡欧、美、日、韩、中国等市场，并被广泛应用于乳制品、饮料、肉制品、保健食品等食品及预防医学领域。据了解，2005年全球乳酸菌业年产值达3000亿美元以上，其中益生菌乳制品总产值超过500亿美元，益生菌市场的销量和范围还在逐年上升和扩大，益生菌产业在全球市场的增长率超过9％。其中乳酸菌饮料在市场上表现非常活跃。

Recently, it was announced that in a placebo-con-trolled probiotic+prebiotic study in acute pancreatitispatients, carried out by the University Medical Centre inUtrecht, Holland (UMC) between 2004 and 2007, 24 peopledied in the trial. The result appears worrisome to users ofprobiotics. Therefore, Chinese Institute of Food Scienceand Technology organized a conference and consultedwith experts. The professionals believe we should not drawa conclusion hastily from the trial. The study conducted onintensivecare.patients suggests that there are no implica-dons for ordinary use of probiotics in food, beverage ordietary supplements. Anyway, numerous consumers areshocked by the news and possibly begin to question thesafety of probiotics. Actually, in global market, the probiotics industry in-creases by 9% annually. And probiotic products having healthfunctions are becoming increasingly prevalent in China market.Probiotics have widely applied in dairy, beverage, meat product,health food, and etc. However, according to an investigation, many Chineseconsumers still lack the basic knowledge on probiotics. Thatreveals the problem with promotion and consumer education,as well as reflects the weakness in product standard, whichresults in the damage to the credibility of products. Thus, theauthorities emphasized that improving relevant standardsand management functions of governments become crucialto industry continued growth and the protection ofconsumers’rights.