Another important issue is the safety of the bacteria. The manufacturer should be able to prove that a probiotic strain is safe and without contamination when delivered.

Stability & Viability

Any probiotic should be stable and capable of remaining viable during storage and the product’s life time. Each strain should have good technological properties, such as the ability to survive in the product and the abililty to survive passage through the acidic environment in the stomach.

Research

Most importantly the probiotic strain must have clinically proven health benefits. The Internet can be a valuable resource for researching a particular probiotic strain of bacteria to determine what sort of scientific documentation is available. In most circumstances, probiotic bacterial strains analyzed by independent university research are more reliable than a product backed simply with a producer’s claim.