Danone Research makes publications of clinical studies on the effects of dairy products Activia and Actimel, public
Danone Research, Danone’s global R&D community gathering 1,200 collaborators, has aimed to provide a direct access to the publications of the clinical studies carried out over the last 20 years concerning the effects of its two flagship dairy products: Actimel and Activia.
Actimel, Activia: more than 40 publications of clinical studies
Launched in 1994 in Belgium, and currently marketed in 53 countries, Actimel has been the subject of 27 publications of clinical studies. It is one of the most documented food products in the scientific arena.
Launched in 1987 in France, Activia accounts for 17 publications of clinical studies and is marketed in 71 countries.
These publications are a part of the scientific dossiers that lay out the claims used by these two brands.
Clinical trials: studies conducted on humans designed to demonstrate the efficiency of a product on health
Danone Research performs most of its clinical trials with independent experts. The same level of scientific rigour is used for the studies conducted by Danone and those conducted by the pharmaceutical industry. The studies are compliant with Good Clinical Practices (GCP), an international scientific and ethical quality standard for the design, implementation, registration, documentation and archiving of studies conducted on human beings. Most of the studies are randomised, controlled and conducted under double blind. They aim to demonstrate the beneficial effects of products on global health and physiological functions.
The Danone strains: exclusive strains identified amongst hundreds of others
The characteristics of each strain are specifics; two strains belonging to the same specie will more than likely carry different effects.Thus, the effect of each strain has to be investigated by proper laboratory tests and clinical studies. As a result, Danone Research devotes significant funds to their study.
Starting with an exclusive collection of 4000 strains of lactic bacteria, the research team’s work involves defining these strains from a molecular point of view, characterising them, identifying those with the most promising health-related potential, then introducing the selected bacteria into a product, validating the health benefit and ensuring it can be produced on an industrial scale.
Throughout the work, the teams use the most recent techniques in genomics and robotics; they develop high-level collaborations like for example with Washington University (USA), Pasteur Institute, Wageningen University (Netherlands), the Lawson Institute (Canada) or INRA (France).
Research on probiotic ferments: a centenarian science yet still emerging
The Russian Elie Metchnikoff (1908 Nobel Prize of Medicine) was the first scientist to become interested in the beneficial effects of lactic ferments on health. He even believed they had a direct effect on longevity. At the end of the XIXth century, he developed his ideas at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and was the first to apply a scientific approach to the study of lactic ferments.
It can be claimed that probiotics represent a century of research. Nevertheless, progress on the matter is only quite recent: more than 2,500 articles have been published over the last nine years, against 483 publications accounted for during the 20 preceding years.
Two factors will have a strong influence on the future of probiotic research:
- a new field of investigation has emerged over the last few years: the study of the gut's flora (also called its microbiota), its interaction with probiotics and the cells of the gastrointestinal tract (among them immune cells that count for 70% of the immune system) and the effects of these interactions on human health,
- new technology, as high-speed genomic tools- is helping researchers apply a systemic approach and study biological mechanisms at a molecular level.