The two parties have signed a Memorandum of Understanding, CMA announced on February 3.
They will collaborate on areas such as hosting and conducting workshops on pre, pro and postbiotics, exchanging technical and scientific knowledge through member education programs and developing resources to help the industry distinguish probiotic dietary ingredients.
Probiotics-related regulations are also an area for partnership. Examples include developing common positions on topics related to probiotics, prebiotics, and postbiotics and promoting harmonization of probiotic regulations based on scientific criteria.
In fact, the two parties have worked together in recent years when Australia’s regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), started a consultation on setting guidelines around probiotic quality. The guidelines were introduced last January, which outlined how methods such as Quantification by Input (QBI) can be used for products containing multiple probiotic strains.
“We’ve worked very closely with the IPA over the last couple of years, particularly in relation to the new probiotic guidelines that the TGA released last year. The IPA shared a lot of international perspectives about probiotics and how they’re regulated overseas, and we found that IPA’s expertise was incredibly valuable,” John O’Doherty, CEO at CMA, told NutraIngredients. “We’ve realized it’s really worthwhile for us to be working more closely together.”
The partnership combines IPA’s global expertise in probiotic science and regulation with CMA’s leadership in the Australian complementary medicines industry, representing manufacturers, raw material suppliers, researchers, brands, and retailers across the supply chain.
“This collaboration represents a significant step forward in elevating the scientific and regulatory standards for probiotics worldwide,” said George Paraskevakos, executive director of IPA, in a press release. “By combining IPA’s international reach with CMA’s deep expertise in the Australian market, we can better serve healthcare professionals, industry stakeholders, and ultimately consumers seeking evidence-based probiotic solutions.”
O’Doherty added that CMA is looking to strengthen its working relationships with various other international organisations. At the moment, the CMA works with some of these organizations through the International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations (IADSA).
Australia’s probiotic market
The collaboration also comes on the back of a booming probiotics market in Australia, and partnering with the IPA can help introduce even more high-quality products to the market, O’Doherty pointed out.
Around 28% of Australians took probiotics last year, according to the 2025 CMA Industry Snapshot.
In total, 74% of Australians reported using supplements, with 41% taking them daily.
Probiotics were the fourth most commonly used supplement, behind multivitamins (43%), vitamin D (35%) and vitamin C (33%). Omega-3/fish oils, iron and collagen were the other popular supplements, with 26%, 14% and 11% of Australians taking these supplements, respectively.
“This is a growing area of interest and innovation. Consumers are more interested in gut health than they ever have been before and digestive health is now the number two category in Australia,” he said.
Australia’s digestive health supplement market was valued at AUD$264 million (US$185m), only behind women’s health at AUD$375m (US$263m).
According to the industry snapshot, the digestive health supplement market had more than doubled since 2016, as probiotics and microbiome-focused products became “everyday family staples” - with 36% of Australian parents saying they have given probiotics to their children.
More than two in five Australians (42%) were also actively seeking better options for digestive health, according to the report.
