Probiotics regulation in Latin American Countries

Abstract

Functional foods can be defined as foods and food components that provide a health benefitbeyond basic nutrition (IFT Expert Report, 2014). Nowadays, the demand for functional foods isincreasing all over the world and constitutes one of the most rapidly growing sectors of the foodindustry (Kearney, 2010). The current legislation indicates that food labels must have clear andaccurate information so that consumers are informed when choosing a food (Salminen and vanLoveren, 2012). Despite this, only few countries have their own directives and regulations regardingfunctional foods. Even though specific laws should exist about probiotic microorganisms and theirassociated health claims, it is a challenge for scientists and the industrial sector to demonstrate therelationship of probiotics with a health effect.Regulations governing the incorporation of novel probiotics may vary a lot with the geographicalregion considered. The greatest advances in this subject were done in European countries, Japan,Canada, and the United States. Latin America is one of the regions with more diverse andasymmetrical legislation among constituting countries.