Journal of Probiotics & Health
Open Access
ISSN: 2329-8901
+44 1223 790975
ISSN: 2329-8901
+44 1223 790975
Raj Lall
Accepted Abstracts: J Prob Health
Probiotics have been known and used by humans for over a century. However, common probiotic use in animals is a 1970s advancement. Just as the term functional food has gained a foothold on the human side, it also is starting take hold on the animal side. Functional foods for animals that relate to health-promotion consist of many actual ingredients including probiotics. The delivery formats for probiotics that animals can use includes pastes, powders, tablets, gel and more recently, soft chew formats. The soft chew format has advantages that some other formats do not. Since many probiotics are heat labile and cannot readily survive manufacturing processes involving heat, the soft chew manufacturing allows for much greater survival of probiotics, as no heat is involved during manufacturing. Vets Plus, Inc. has designed a highly-palatable, patented formulation for probiotics in a soft chew format that allows for probiotics survival as a functional food for companion animals. Other heat sensitive ingredients, such as enzymes, can now be included in the soft chew format along with the probiotics. The soft chew formulation with probiotics also allows for masking of the flavor of medications or even hiding pills while providing the functional food aspect and a treat. The future of the soft chew format will continue to expand the overall use of probiotics in companion animals just as we are seeing on the human side.
Raj Lall is the President and CEO of Vets Plus, Inc., a global developer, manufacturer and distributor of food and companion animal health products. Vets Plus specializes in custom formulations of nutritional, nutraceutical, Probiotic and Prebiotic supplements. Lall holds an MS in pharmacognosy from the University of Minnesota where he completed his thesis on probiotics. He currently serves on the Applied Science advisory board at University of Wisconsin-Stout.