Feb 9 2012 --- A Japanese company has applied to the Food Standards Agency for approval to market a strain of the bacterium Clostridium butyricum as a novel food ingredient for use in food supplements. Views are wanted on this application.

The company, Miyarisan Pharmaceutical Co., plans to market Clostridium butyricum (strain CBM 588) as a probiotic food supplement to support, maintain or restore healthy gut flora physiology and/or function. The bacterium would be produced as spores in tablet form.

These types of bacteria are found in human and animal gut as part of the normal microflora.

The applicant has marketed preparations of this strain for use as a probiotic in Japan and other Asian countries for several decades and is now intending to market these supplements in the European Union (EU). The strain has also received EU approval as a microbial feed additive for chickens and piglets.