Digestive enzyme and probiotic blend

This is a two-part digestive complex: a broad-spectrum enzyme system that acts on the meal, and a spore-forming probiotic robust enough to sit in the same capsule as the proteases. The enzyme side is fermented rather than animal-derived — alpha-amylase plus acid, neutral and alkaline proteases from Aspergillus oryzae and Aspergillus niger, lipase from Rhizopus oryzae, cellulase from Trichoderma, lactase (beta-galactosidase) from Aspergillus oryzae and alpha-galactosidase from Aspergillus niger — usually with two plant proteases beside them, stem bromelain from Ananas comosus and papain from the latex of Carica papaya. Activities are declared in the unit each enzyme is actually assayed in, because a milligram figure tells a formulator nothing about performance: amylase in DU (dextrinizing units), protease in HUT (hemoglobin unit, tyrosine base), lipase in FIP units, lactase in ALU, cellulase in CU, alpha-galactosidase in GalU, bromelain in GDU (gelatin digesting units) and papain in USP units, where the USP monograph sets the floor for official papain at 6,000 units per mg. The probiotic is Bacillus coagulans, a Gram-positive, spore-forming, lactic-acid-producing bacillus. Its taxonomy has moved twice recently — the species was transferred to Weizmannia in 2020 and then to Heyndrickxia in 2023 — so Bacillus coagulans, Weizmannia coagulans and Heyndrickxia coagulans all turn up on paperwork for the same organism, and it sits on EFSA’s QPS list. It is chosen here for a mechanical reason as much as a nutritional one: the dormant endospore is not degraded by the proteases packed next to it, and it tolerates ambient storage and gastric acid, whereas vegetative Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium strains in the same blend would lose count on the shelf. Standard loading is 1 to 5 billion CFU per capsule at manufacture with a declared overage to hold the label claim to end of shelf life; India’s FSSAI nutraceutical regulations require at least 10^8 CFU in the recommended daily serving before a product may be presented as containing probiotics, and Bacillus coagulans appears in the FSSAI schedule of permitted strains. Strains are supplied unbranded and non-GMO; a customer-nominated strain with its own culture-collection deposit number can be run to order. Two allergen questions come up on almost every enquiry, and both have reassuring answers. The lactase is fungal, produced by Aspergillus oryzae fermentation — it is not extracted from dairy and the blend contains no milk. And the Bacillus coagulans is propagated on a non-dairy medium, which matters because not every commercial spore powder is. The standard blend is therefore vegan and vegetarian in an HPMC shell, gluten-free, non-GMO, and free from egg, soy, fish, crustacean and tree nut; bromelain (pineapple stem) and papain (papaya latex) are declared by botanical source so a brand can carry them where its market treats fruit-derived proteases as declarable. One handling note for the buyer’s plant: proteases generally, and papain, bromelain and fungal amylase in particular, are recognised respiratory sensitisers as airborne dust, so the premix is supplied granulated and dust-suppressed and should be handled under local exhaust ventilation. Water activity is held below 0.30, since both enzyme activity and spore count decay quickly above that.