I asked Khoruts what exactly is in the “probiotic” products seen in stores now. “Marketing,” he replied. Microbiologist Gregor Reid, director of the Canadian Research & Development Centre for Probiotics, seconds the sentiment. With one exception, the bacteria (if they even exist) in probiotics are aerobic; culturing, processing, and shipping bacteria in an oxygen-free environment is complicated and costly. Ninety-five percent of these products, Reid told me, “have never been tested in a human and should not be called probiotic.”
