EU Countries Unite to Legalize Probiotic Labelling

Denmark’s Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Rasmus Prehn, has announced his intention to work with Spain and other European Union (EU) countries to legalize use of the word “probiotic” on food product labels throughout the EU.

Labelling laws are inconsistent across EU countries, an issue that has become more of a concern as e-commerce has grown. Data from Lumina Intelligence show that in 2019 EU customers spent $108 million on online probiotic products, with nearly 80% including health claims either on the packaging or on the e-commerce website.

A domino effect began when Spain allowed the use of the “probiotic” label less than a year ago. Now seven EU countries currently allow “probiotic” labels under varying conditions: Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Malta. With Denmark included, only 30% of EU countries would allow use of the term.

 Dr. Luis Gosalbez, managing director at the Spanish consulting firm Sandwalk BioVentures, believes regulation should be changed for consistency at the EU level, “This situation in which you can find “probiotics” in some EU countries, whereas you cannot find them in others, does not make a lot of sense and does not effectively protect or inform consumers.”

George Paraskevakos, the executive director of the International Probiotics Association, cites consumer need in his support of the labelling initiative: “Oversight from a regulatory perspective is a must for any authority; after all, consumer safety is priority one for any government, but imposing the type of regulations on a category with a very long history of safe use and such a low level of risk makes no sense.”