Morinaga Milk Industry Co., Ltd. is a leading dairy product company in Japan with more than a century of history harnessing the nutritional properties of dairy products and its functional ingredients.
Morinaga Milk is also a key global probiotics manufacturer that offer a premium line of probiotics bifidobacteria of high compatibility with humans. Morinaga Milk excels in innovative technology and offers various dairy probiotics and other beneficial functional ingredients to customers throughout the world.
Morinaga Milk holds a leading marketing position with its many top brands in yogurt, milk, infant formula, beverage, cheese, butter, ice cream, pudding, dietary supplements and clinical foods. The functional ingredients manufactured and supplied globally by Morinaga Milk are probiotics, lactoferrin, lactulose, whey proteins, peptide and aloe sterol, among which are used in high value-added nutritional products such as infant formulas, dietary supplements and functional foods.
Since Morinaga Milk was the first company to start producing and selling infant formulas in Japan, the company has a long history and abundant experience in research and development of infant nutrition. Morinaga Milk started research of Human-Residential Bifidobacteria (HRB) in the 1960s, inspired by the fact that bifidobacteria are the predominant bacteria residing in the intestines of breast-fed infants. Below are the main strains of Morinaga Milk’s HRB probiotics.
BB536: well-documented multifunctional probiotics
Bifidobacterium longum BB536, the flagship probiotics of Morinaga Milk, is a strain of bifidobacteria naturally reside in human intestines. BB536 is well-known for its stability, quality and wide-ranging effects, shown by more than 190 scientific reports, including numerous clinical studies. BB536 was the first Human-Residential Bifidobacteria (HRB) strain to receive the FDA GRAS notification for use in conventional foods and beverages (GRAS Notice No. GRN 000268) in 2009 and has been incorporated in various products worldwide for more than 50 years. In 2019, BB536 also attained FDA-notified GRAS status for use in infant formula (GRN 000877).
BB536 is a clinically effective, well-established, multifunctional probiotic strain that helps people achieve optimal health from the inside out. Ingestion of BB536 can provide a consistent beneficial effect in improvement of intestinal health, maintenance of intestinal microflora balance, regulation of immune response, anti-allergy, and protection against microbial infections. Key clinical and mechanistic studies reveal that BB536 acts in concert with the gut microbiota to drive a fine-tuned intestinal and immune balance. Due to its robust safety, efficacy and stability profile, BB536 has gained wide recognition in the marketplace. Morinaga provides BB536 for not only use in dietary supplements and infant formulas, but also as cultures used in yoghurt and yoghurt drinks.
M-16V: ideal probiotics for infant health
Bifidobacterium breve M-16V is well-known for its strong safety profile and clinical efficacy, shown by more than 80 scientific reports, including numerous clinical studies. Its safety and effect to promote healthy growth of premature infants are highly evaluated by medical professionals. To date, M-16V is used in more than 140 Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) in affiliated hospitals in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore. M-16V attained not only FDA-notified GRAS status, but also GRAS status for infants (GRN 000453 and GRN 000454) in 2013. With such a robust safety profile, M-16V is well-positioned as a trustworthy and suitable probiotic ingredient for routine supplementation in infants. Morinaga provides M-16V as a functional probiotic ingredient for use in various applications such as dietary supplements, infant formulas, and oil drop products.
M-63: probiotic for infant use and beneficial for healthy mood
Bifidobacterium infantis M-63 is unique among gut bacteria in its immense capacity to utilise human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), the component that is highly abundant in human milk. HMOs offer no direct nutritive value for infants, but they function in shaping the infant gut microbiota with lifelong health impacts. M-63 is a clinically effective strain that have superior potential to colonise and adapt to the intestinal environment of humans, especially infants. Ingestion of M-63 improves bifidobacterial colonisation in infant gut. In addition to its effects on infant health, recent clinical study shows the potential of M-63 in improving mental state in individuals with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
B-3: A unique probiotic for weight management
Bifidobacterium breve B-3 is a promising probiotic strain for body fat reduction, maintaining healthy body weight and supporting healthy life. In light of the relationship between the gut microbiota and obesity, B-3 is proven safe, well tolerated, and effective at maintaining healthy body weight for better life. Preclinical and clinical findings imply that intake of B-3 could improve intestinal barrier function and repress inflammation. Combined with its positive effect on fat metabolism, consumption of B-3 showed great promise for body fat reductions and preventing metabolic disorders in pre-obese individuals.
Human-Residential Bifidobacteria (HRB) are best fitted for humans
Bifidobacteria are common first colonisers and resident microbiota members of the human gut across the lifespan. Their presence in the human gut has been associated with health-promoting benefits and reduced abundance of this genus are linked with several diseases. Morinaga Milk has been conducting research on bifidobacteria for more than half a century. Recent research show that bifidobacteria species that naturally resides in the human intestine – Human Residential Bifidobacteria (HRB) – are particularly superior in various physiological functions.
Unlike Non-HRB species, the species of HRB are superior at utilising HMOs and tolerant to the antibacterial factors found in human breast milk called lysozyme. Their high compatibility with human milk points to their symbiotic role in the development and maturation of a healthy gut microbiome. In addition, HRB are superior to non-HRB at producing folate, a critical cofactor for cell growth and metabolism, and certain species are particularly effective at eliminating potentially harmful food-derived opioid peptides. Latest research show that certain species of HRB, commonly found in the infant gut microbiome, produce a unique tryptophan metabolite named indole-3-lactic acid (ILA) that could potentially act as a mediator in bifidobacterial host-microbiota crosstalk and involves in intestinal immune response and neuronal developmental processes. Given these facts, HRB are more than natural and most suitable for consumption by humans at all age groups.
Morinaga Milk continues pursuing the safety and quality of its probiotics
Safety and quality are the biggest concern for consumers. Morinaga Milk’s highly safe Human-Residential Bifidobacteria probiotics are manufactured at a facility that is with Food Safety System Certification and HALAL certified. The probiotics ingredients are free of dairy compounds, gluten, allergens and genetically modified organisms, and can be applied into various delivery formats such as capsules, sachets, tablets. They are available in powder form and can be incorporated into various innovative applications such as chocolates, cereals, protein bar, and nutritive powder and so on. Morinaga Milk will continue to research bifidobacteria, providing evidence-based products for making human life healthier.
For more information about Morinaga’s HRB probiotics, please visit http://bb536.jp/english/index.html.
