Nestlé Health Science launches two probiotics to meet specific Chinese consumers’ needs

CHINA – Nestlé Health Science, one of the world’s leading nutrition, health and wellness companies, has launched two new probiotics targeting kids’ growth and immune health on China’s offline retail market.

The new products, which come in the form of solid beverages and are sold as general foods, are part of the firm’s strategy for growing its portfolio for supporting growth and addressing allergies among kids.

Citing data from Euromonitor, Nestle Health Science pointed out that China’s probiotics dietary supplement retail sale market would exceed RMB$36.6bn (US$5.29bn) by 2023, of which, the market size of children’s probiotics would exceed RMB$8bn (US$1.16bn).

To prepare itself fully for such a big growth in the market, the firm said it has been exploring different areas, including the microbiome, as part of its research on kids’ allergies and the immune system.  

Some of the firm’s existing products targeting allergies, including cow milk protein allergy among kids include Alfamino, Althera, Alfare, and Nutren Junior.

The probiotic strains in the products sold under the probiotics brand Garden of Life include Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus GG, Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus HN001, Bifidobacterium animalis BB-12, and Bifidobacterium lactis HN019.

Garden of Life was introduced into China via the cross-border e-commerce channel in 2019, launching a variety of products such as multivitamins said to be made from organic fruits and vegetables.

The launches under the ‘mykind’ supplement series also have fish oil, probiotics, and protein powder as well as probiotics for supporting sleep aid, and brain and immune health in adults.

Cecily Gu, vice president, and business executive officer, Greater China at Nestle Health Science, said: “The launch of the two new products is not only a consolidation of Nestle Health Science’s latest product development research findings but is also the first set of products designed to meet the specific needs of Chinese consumers.”

We look forward to how these two new products and our range for addressing kids’ allergies could together lead to the growth of China’s probiotics market. We would also work with local retailing channels to bring more high quality and a wider range of health products for the China market.”

Nestlé Health Science noted that the product targeted at immune health contains a higher number of live bacteria at 20bn Colony Forming Units (CFU), prebiotics, as well as vitamin C while the other product for supporting growth contains 15 CFU of live bacteria, as well as zinc.

CFUs, are a unit of measurement used to determine the number of bacterial cells in a probiotic supplement or lab sample, usually approximated to grams.

Similar to other products from Garden of Life, these two products also do not contain common allergens such as lactose, dairy, fragrances, and preservatives.

The new launch is also an IP collaboration with minions, where the cartoon character is printed on the product packaging.

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