Pre- & Probiotics 2011

Gut health and immunity products have been the star performers in functional foods for many years, but the category faces serious challenges as regulators globally place stringent demands on the kind of science required to back claims.

Big Food players like Danone, Yakult and General Mills are heavily invested in the €12bn+ sector that analysts predict will double to €24bn by 2016, despite the EU and US regulatory clampdown that has forced shifts not only in marketing strategies - but the very relationship between marketing and science.

The sector's ongoing scientific efforts have been boosted recently by the US's National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) - an organ of the National Institutes of Health - explicitly backing probiotic research and effects in a number of health areas in the gut, the immune system and beyond.

The Pre- & Probiotics 2011 Virtual Conference will feature leading voices offering cutting edge, pragmatic advice to advance understanding of where pre- and probiotic science is at, where it is going, and how it can inform claim-making and market building.