Bacillus coagulans

Bacillus coagulans is the workhorse of shelf-stable probiotics. It is a Gram-positive, endospore-forming, facultatively anaerobic rod that grows between roughly 30 and 55 °C with an optimum near 50 °C and produces L(+)-lactic acid homofermentatively. Its taxonomy has moved twice in recent years: transferred to Weizmannia in 2020 and then to Heyndrickxia in 2023, so current literature may name the same organism Weizmannia coagulans or Heyndrickxia coagulans. Older material and some suppliers still call it Lactobacillus sporogenes, a name coined in the 1935 edition of Bergey's Manual and long since abandoned — it is not a Lactobacillus, and a label carrying that name is a compliance problem rather than a marketing one. The commercial value of the organism is the endospore. Published in vitro work reports spore tolerance of simulated gastric fluid at pH 2.0, small-intestinal bile salts and heat to about 85 °C, which is why B. coagulans survives direct compression, extrusion, baking and hot-fill beverage processing where vegetative lactic acid bacteria do not. That makes it the default choice for tablets, gummies, chocolate, protein powders and ambient shelf-stable formats that cannot carry a cold chain. Bacillus coagulans has held EFSA Qualified Presumption of Safety status since 2007, and several strains — including MTCC 5856 and GBI-30 6086 — carry US FDA GRAS notifications. Thovek supplies spray-dried or freeze-dried spore powder, standardised on maltodextrin to 1, 6 or 15 billion CFU/g, with unstandardised concentrate at substantially higher counts for customers blending in-house. Named strains including MTCC 5856, GBI-30 6086, Unique IS-2 and SNZ 1969 can be sourced subject to licence, or a non-deposited house strain supplied where the buyer does not need a strain-specific dossier. The organism is grown on non-animal media and the standard maltodextrin carrier is maize-derived, so the powder is vegan and vegetarian suitable and free of milk, egg, fish, crustacean and nut inputs; confirm the soy and cereal-gluten status of the fermentation medium per lot, and tell us if a corn-free carrier such as tapioca is required. FSSAI Schedule VII strain designation labelling applies for the Indian market.