First Probiotic Health Claim Approved in Korea

South Korea’s Ministry of Food & Drug Safety (MFDS) has approved the country’s first probiotic health claim. The claim is for Chr. Hansen’s RC-14 and GR-1 Probio-Tech bacterial strains, which target women’s vaginal health.

Human studies show that both GR-1 (Lactobacillus rhamnosus) and RC-14 (Lactobacillus reuteri) help maintain a healthy balance of vaginal bacterial flora, increasing the number of beneficial Lactobacilli flora. As a result, both strains may help lower the risk of bacterial vaginosis (vaginal infection) and yeast vaginitis (yeast infection), as well as lower the risk of recurrent urinary tract infections, with no resulting antibiotic resistance.

FDA has already approved both RC-14 and GR-1, which Chr. Hansen brands as “Urex,” for use in the United States. Thanks to the newly approved health claim, South Korean companies may now use the following wording: “Urex can help vaginal health by increasing lactic acid bacteria.”

“This is exceptionally good news to our customers in the Korean market,” said Lasse Nagell, Chr. Hansen’s vice president of sales and marketing, Human Health & Nutrition, in a press release. “Urex is the first and only probiotic product with an approved health claim within vaginal health in Korea, an important growth market in Chr. Hansen’s Asia-Pacific region.”

The company said it first submitted the health claim to MFDS in January 2014 and had been working on the file’s dossier since mid-2013.

Jennifer Grebow
Editor-in-Chief
Nutritional Outlook magazine jennifer.grebow@ubm.com

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