Probiotic yoghurts: effectiveness contested

Five brands of probiotic yogurts, supposed to aid digestion, have been given permission to display health claims on their packaging, based on scientific evidence provided to the Swiss Federal Office of Food Safety (FVO) by the manufacturers themselves. Yet, according to a laboratory test, over 99.9% of probiotic germs do not survive gastric juices in the stomach, and therefore have no effect when they pass into the intestine, where they are supposed to colonize the bacterial flora.