Talk:Probiotic

Clarification of terminology

I think this page would benefit from revisions to ensure that it aligns with established definitions of fermented foods, postbiotics, and probiotics. This post aims to reduce some confusion caused by the overlapping terms.

Fermented foods are defined as "foods made through desired microbial growth and enzymatic conversions of food components" (PMID: 33398112). This includes any food that is made through fermentation regardless of the strain used or whether the microorganism remains alive at consumption. Examples of fermented foods include yoghurt, kefir, sourdough bread, beer, and soybean paste. Fermented foods is an umbrella category that can include products containing postbiotics/parabiotics and probiotics.

Postbiotics are defined as "preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a health benefit on the host" (PMID: 33948025). In the context of foods, this means that if microbial products such as metabolites or cell fragments remain after processing, but not necessarily the live microbe itself, the food item contains postbiotics. Examples of food products with postbiotics include sourdough bread, miso, tempeh, yoghurt, and kefir, as long as the microbial products remain after cooking/processing. To clarify, the food itself is not a postbiotic; the term refers only to the microbial components present.

A related term, parabiotics, which is defined as "non-viable microbial cells (intact or broken) or crude cell extracts (i.e. with complex chemical composition), which, when administered (orally or topically) in adequate amounts, confer a benefit on the human or animal consumer" (PMID: 21499799). The distinction between postbiotics and parabiotics is still debated as the concepts overlap considerably.

Probiotics are defined as "live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host" (PMID 24912386). The food item itself (e.g. yoghurt) is not a probiotic, but rather a probiotic product. Because probiotics require the microorganisms to be alive, any product that is heated after fermentation cannot be considered probiotic (e.g. sourdough bread and cooked sauerkraut). In addition, probiotics require defined microbial strains, which excludes traditionally fermented foods produced without identifying cultures (e.g. typical homemade sauerkraut with just salt, cabbage, and water). Probiotics may also be added to foods after fermentation, but the quantity must be sufficient to deliver a health benefit. Overall, while fermented foods can contain probiotics, only those with viable, adequate quantity, and defined strains qualify as probiotic products.

If anyone has any questions, I am happy to clarify, discuss, or research the topic. Bibere vinum (talk) 14:10, 20 November 2025 (UTC)

Replace promotional image

The image of commercial product Yakult, right at the top of the wiki page is trying to promote a product. I don't know whether it is accidental or deliberate corporate washing. ~2026-22657-93 (talk) 02:05, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

Agree and Fixed with a neutral yogurt image in Special:Diff/1348531198. Zefr (talk) 04:28, 13 April 2026 (UTC)

I hate to say it, but unfortunately there are technical and legal definitions of the term "Probiotic", and this one, at least (published in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology), specifically excludes yoghurt. "Probiotic" is, in some jurisdictions, a term that cannot be applied to a food supplement unless they've passed definite clinical tests, have a defined composition, and contain enough of a beneficial organism to have beneficial effects. Because natural yoghurt is variable and may or may not, it's excluded. Yakult, ironically, is genuinely a probiotic (disclosure: I've never taken the stuff nor felt any need, and personally rather like natural yoghurt as a health food). So what's happened here is we've replaced a (admittedly effectively promotional) image of something that is a probiotic with something that according to reliable sources, isn't (although it's a fermented health food). I'm going to remove the image for the moment unless someone can think of something better, or find a more up-to-date source to indicate that natural yoghurt is legally a probiotic in a reasonable number of countries. At the very least, we need to distinguish between "yogurt" and "live yogurt" (the current caption doesn't specify live) because a non-live yoghurt doesn't contain any live microorganisms that can influence the gut microflora at all. The pedant in me refuses simply to change the caption because I can't see if that particular picture contains live microorganisms! Elemimele (talk) 20:33, 14 October 2026 (UTC)

No problem with removing the neutral yogurt image. There was some logic to having it because yogurt is the most common example of a probiotic mentioned in the article, and research designs typically include it with live cultures as the medium. In Wikimedia Commons, I could find no good images to link food-probiotic, so will leave it to you to search Commons for a useful one, if warranted at all. Zefr (talk) 20:45, 14 October 2026 (UTC)

Zefr, I think it's going to be quite hard to find an image. I'm not a nutritionist, and only bumped into this because I was trying to look for good quality articles on phytochemicals or food supplements to try to work out what defines a decent quality article. I'm in the UK. So far as I can make out, the term "probiotic" is legally restricted and can't be used without clinical proof of benefit - and since no manufacturer has achieved this for their product, there is nothing which can actually be sold with "probiotic" written on the packaging here in the UK. That leaves only "common usage" of the word, which is much harder to back up with sources. Most instances just doing Google seem to be referring to commercial products rather than naturally-healthy fermented foods containing live microorganisms. So it's a bit of a nomenclature-mess. We certainly couldn't have the picture of Yakult because although people call it a probiotic here, Yakult themselves aren't allowed to, and the generic yoghurt pic doesn't fit usage either. Elemimele (talk) 06:14, 15 October 2026 (UTC)