The submitted studies supported the health claim of the strains but not to the bacterial strains of the probiotic. Biomed's phenotypic testing were not accepted as sufficient to properly identify the bacterial strains. The claim, "natural intestinal microflora during travel," had not been sufficiently characterized. On the four other claims, the panel said that in vitro trials cannot sufficiently predict in vivo efficacy in human subjects of experiment (Starling). A Yakult spokesman, however, said that their products still had to be assessed

(Starling 2009). According to him, their company's claims for Lactobacillus casei Shirota probiotic strain had strong evidence for its health benefits from more than 70 human studies and more than 70 years of research (Starling). The World Health Organization itself recognized probiotics as "live micro-organisms & #8230;which provide measurable health benefits (Cooper 2009)." And 30 million shoppers accepted the claims of probiotics makers for good bacteria to defeat bad bacteria in their gut. Lately, both their effectiveness and safety were questioned by academicians (Cooper). These are signals that functional food companies may be exploiting people's interest in improving their health and, at the same time, overcharging them for promised health benefits that have not been proved, non-existent or downright false. #

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