Yakult brings probiotic little bottles to Switzerland

The 65mL little bottles will be sold in packs of 5 at mainstream retail outlets and Yakult said it had a target of 1555 bottles sold per day on average by the end of December.

“The Yakult Group will contribute to the health of the people in the country through distribution of the product,”​ the company said.

Among European nations Yakult is available in the Netherlands (where its European operation is headquartered), Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, Italy, Luxembourg, the UK and Ireland. It is available in more than 30 countries globally.

While Yakult, along with other probiotic players like Danone, have been affected by the European Union ban on probiotic marketing under the European Union nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR), the sector was buoyed in March when Swiss authorities approved a digestive claims for Danone’s Activia spoonable yoghurt.

A recent randomised controlled trail, published in the British Journal of Nutrition​ found Lactobacillus casei Shirota in the form of Yakult Light could significantly reduce antibiotic-associated diarrhoea (AAD) and C. difficile associated diarrhoea (CDAD) during a course of antibiotic use in hospital patients with spinal cord injuries.