Joint statement IPA Europe – European Dairy Association (EDA)

7th March 2022

The European Dairy Association (EDA) and the International Probiotics Association – Europe (IPA Europe) want to highlight the contribution that the probiotic sector can make on a number of the objectives listed in the EU Farm to Fork Strategy, and jointly ask for a clear engagement of the European Commission and stakeholders on the use of the term probiotic on labelling and communication towards consumers in Europe.

IPA Europe, representing the probiotic sector, and the European Dairy Association (EDA)  argue that ‘contains probiotics’ describes the substance, or category of substances, as factual information, and that it matches with the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.  Since several years the probiotics sector has been asking the European Commission to look at the probiotic category, but until now this was not indicated as a priority.

The global probiotic market in 2021 is over 33Bn EUR  and continues to grow, with the European market representing 1/3 of the global consumption of probiotic food and food supplements. More than 70% of this market is represented by dairy and fermented milk products.

‘We call for action on the part of the European Commission and relevant stakeholders to build a coherent and consistent framework in Europe, to alleviate avoidable legal burden, with the goal of enhancing the functioning of our European Single Market’.

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