Lactobacillus sporogenes (Bacillus coagulans)

The name on most purchase orders is a ninety-year-old error, and it is worth stating plainly because the CoA has to match the label. Horowitz-Wlassowa and Nowotelnow described a spore-forming lactic acid bacterium in 1932 and called it Lactobacillus sporogenes. Lactobacilli do not form spores; Bergey's Manual flagged the misclassification as early as 1939 and the organism was moved out of the genus, and the name 'Lactobacillus sporogenes' never made the 1980 Approved Lists of Bacterial Names, so it has no standing in bacterial nomenclature at all. The organism actually shipped under that label is Bacillus coagulans Hammer 1915. Genome-based work has since proposed two further homes for it - Weizmannia coagulans (Gupta et al., 2020) and Heyndrickxia coagulans (Narsing Rao et al., 2023) - but EFSA's 2026 QPS update settles on Bacillus coagulans as the correct name with both of those as synonyms, and that is what Thovek declares. Where a buyer's market still expects the legacy trade name, it can be carried alongside the valid one rather than instead of it. What makes the organism commercially distinct is the endospore. B. coagulans is a Gram-positive, facultatively anaerobic, homofermentative rod that produces the L(+) isomer of lactic acid, and it is supplied as dormant spores rather than vegetative cells. That single fact removes most of the handling constraints attached to lactobacilli and bifidobacteria: no cold chain, no refrigerated container, and a tolerance for processing heat that opens up matrices normally closed to live cultures. Published work on the strain MTCC 5856 records 98.5% viability retained through 72 C pasteurisation in milk and juice and 73% retained through microwave cooking. Bulk spore concentrate is offered at 6, 15 and 100 billion spores per gram, and finished capsules are built to label strengths from 1 to 15 billion CFU with a manufacturing overage sized so the printed count still holds at the end of the stated shelf life. Strain identity is confirmed by sequencing and declared on the label rather than species alone, as FSSAI and most export markets require; the organism sits on FSSAI Schedule VII, on the EFSA QPS list, and individual strains carry US GRAS notices, for example GRN 601 for the SBC37-01 spore preparation. Allergen and origin status is set by the fermentation medium and the capsule shell, not by the bacterium, which is why it has to be fixed at order stage and re-declared lot by lot. Dairy-free and soy-free media can be specified, in which case no milk or soy protein enters the process; where a standard medium is used, residual milk or soy peptone must be declared. The shell decides the dietary claim outright: HPMC gives a vegan and vegetarian product, gelatin makes it bovine or porcine and must be stated as such. No fish, crustacean, molluscan, egg, nut or gluten-containing material is used at any point. Every lot ships with viable count by plate count, strain identity by sequencing, moisture and water activity, and a signed allergen and origin declaration.