Probiotics Label: The Meaning of the Three Parts Name

Have you ever looked at probiotic labels and wondered what those lengthy series of alphabets and numbers of each culture strain mean? This short post will hopefully answer that question.

Quick Naming Guide

If you look at the label of a probiotic, you may see something similar to this:

This is an image of nutritional facts from Natural Factors, Ultimate Probiotic 12/12 Formula. Click on the image or here to see the product on Amazon. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Let’s take a closer look at the naming of each strain on the label. You see that there is three parts name here. Please note that some manufacturers may decide to leave the third part off because they are not legally required to list them. Let’s come back to the three parts. We have the first name, which represents the genus of that strain. The second part represents the species’ name. And the last part represents the subspecies of the strain.

Further Dive into Classification and Identification

Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species

Sounds familiar? This is taxonomy, a classification used for any living beings on earth. From plants to insects. From fishes to birds. From bacteria to whales. And yes, this includes humans as well.

We started off with the most inclusive category: kingdom. Humans belong to the kingdom Animalia. Bacteria belong to the kingdom Bacteria. From there, each category gains more exclusivity. Let’s use one of the probiotic bacteria as an example:

Listing the full classification whenever we talk about a bacteria would be very cumbersome. This is why the scientists decided to shorten the name to just the last two categories: the genus and the species. This is called binomial nomenclature.

This is why we’re known as Homo sapiens. Or probiotics label list their culture as Lactobacillus acidophilus. But sometimes, this can still be too long, so the name can be shortened even more by doing this L. acidophilus. All of the bacteria with this name are regarded as the same species. This means that they are closely related.

Over time, scientists began to notice that there are some bacterial species whose members are slightly different from one another. While they’re still similar enough not to be a separate species, they are not similar enough to be considered exactly the same, either. If you’re confused, don’t worry. Let me give you an example.

Let’s take L. acidophilus here. This is considered one species, right? Say we have two laboratories that want to culture this species. If they culture the bacteria for long enough, slight gene differences will happen due to random chances that occur every time new bacteria are generated. Over an extended period of time, both labs will still have L. acidophilus, but the two cultures will have been different enough that they are not the same. So while they’re considered the same species still, they have to be put into a different subspecies category or strains. These are the numbers after the bacteria’s binomial nomenclature on the probiotics labels.

Differences Between Strains?

Just because they are considered different strings or belong to different subspecies or strains, that does not mean that they don’t have any similarities at all. I would say that they still share most of the common functionalities within that species. So what are the potential differences between strains?

A study at the Chonnam National University in Korea looked into different characteristics between several Lactobacillus strains. Some of the factors that this study looked at were:

• Acid and bile tolerance – how well the strains survive the harsh environment of our digestive system
• Cholesterol assimilation – how well the strains can work with cholesterol to lower it
• Adhesion assay – how well the strains can adhere to the intestinal cells so they can further boost our immune system

These are some of the potential differences between different strains. So yes, there are some differences, but are these differences significant enough for you to pick one probiotics over the other? With the lack of more information, I cannot say for sure without looking at the direct comparison between the two strains. It is a big market for different probiotics manufacturers because they believe their strains are superior to the next competitor. This is why some manufacturers closely guarded their source of strains or how they culture their strains. You may notice that some manufacturers only stated the binomial nomenclature name and listed the strain under “proprietary blend.”

What Else Should Probiotics Label Have?

We’ve talked a lot about the naming system of the bacteria, but what else should probiotics label have? And what can they put on the label, and what can they not? Many of them will come down to what categories they are being listed in. If you need a quick refresher on the different categories, please refer to this article under “The Four Categories.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) released a document on probiotics in 2002. They recommend that the following information should be on the label in addition to the binomial nomenclature and strain destination for each probiotic strain:

1. Minimum viable number of viable bacteria of each strain at the end of shelf-life
2. Proper storage conditions
3. Corporate contact details for consumer information
4. Health claims (if permitted by the local regulation)

Keep in mind that these are only recommendations. The FAO and WHO have no authority to enforce these recommendations. But I recommend looking at these factors when considering different probiotics to purchase.

Conclusion

Thank you! I hope that this article has been helpful to some of you. As usual, if you have any questions or if there is a topic you would like me to post, feel free to leave a comment below or reach out to me via email.

Reference:

1. Nyanzi, R., Jooste, P. J., & Buys, E. M. (2021). Invited review: Probiotic yogurt quality criteria, regulatory framework, clinical evidence, and analytical aspects. Journal of dairy science, 104(1), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2020-19116
2. Song, M., Yun, B., Moon, J. H., Park, D. J., Lim, K., & Oh, S. (2015). Characterization of Selected Lactobacillus Strains for Use as Probiotics. Korean journal for food science of animal resources, 35(4), 551–556. https://doi.org/10.5851/kosfa.2015.35.4.551
3. FAO/WHO Expert Consultation. (2022). Probiotics in food, Health and nutritional properties and guidelines for evaluation.FAO/WHO Expert Consultation on Evaluation of Probiotics in Food. https://www.fao.org/3/a0512e/a0512e.pdf
4. Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition. (2018). Draft Guidance for Industry: Policy Regarding Quantitative Labeling of Dietary Supplements Containing Live Microbials. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/draft-guidance-industry-policy-regarding-quantitative-labeling-dietary-supplements-containing-live