The recent Food Ingredients Europe (FiE) exhibition saw a flurry of activity in probiotics, with new immune-boosting probiotic sticks from Chr Hansen and a cold and flu formulation from Danisco - both aimed at kids, plus a probiotic chocolate from Barry Callebaut and Lal'Food.

The sticks contain the friendly bacteria strains BB-12 and LGG and can be mixed into children's foods and drinks.

A daily dose of Danisco's HOWARU Protect probiotic formulation significantly reduced cold-associated symptoms, such as a runny nose, fever and cough in a recent clinical trial conducted on 248 children in China.

Separately, Barry Callebaut claimed that chocolate was a better carrier of probiotics than dairy products because the fat matrix and cocoa solids in certain varieties enabled four times as many beneficial bacteria to survive through the digestive system.

Its new probiotic chocolate, launched at FiE, uses micro-encapsulation technology developed by Lal'Food that protects good bacteria from heat and stomach acid.