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Microbiology

Categorize probiotics to speed research

Nature volume 485, page 446 (2012)Cite this article

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As chairman of a panel convened in 2001–02 by the United Nations and the World Health Organization to establish guidelines for the use of probiotics, I am dismayed by recent regulatory changes in Europe and the United States.

These have led the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to override peer-reviewed studies in prestigious journals, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now requires an Investigational New Drug Application to be filed for probiotic foods or supplements that are intended to prevent or treat disease. The former has led to many negative ramifications for probiotic research and development in Europe, and the latter has halted research on probiotics at the US National Institutes of Health.

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  1. Lawson Health Research Institute and University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

    Gregor Reid

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  1. Gregor Reid
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Reid, G. Categorize probiotics to speed research. Nature 485, 446 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/485446a

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