The Economic and Social Value Of Probiotics, With IPA Europe’s Rosanna Pecere

The science around the microbiome is moving fast, consumers are clearly interested, and yet the category still runs into some long-standing problems in the European Union, not least the inconsistent way the word “probiotic” itself is treated across the region. In this episode of HBW Insight’s Over the Counter podcast, we talk to Rosanna Pecere, Executive Director of IPA Europe, the European office of the International Probiotics Association. Rosanna tells us about a socioeconomic assessment that the association has recently published, which tries to put a figure on what probiotics are actually worth to society. According to the report, round €10bn could be potentially saved with probiotic use, which Pecere says is probably on the conservative side. We talk about where that value comes from, from digestive and respiratory health through to mental wellbeing, and why the regulatory gap in the EU is holding so much of it back. Timestamps 2:30 – Introductions 4:00 – IPA Europe’s Socio Economic Impact Assessment 5:50 – Key Findings 8:20 – Why are probiotics so valuable? 10:00 – What is holding probiotics back? 11:00 – What would a different regulatory approach look like? 12:00 – Why should consumers care? 13:00 – What’s next?