From flow cytometry to PCR-based techniques, there are several advances for the enumeration of probiotics and the emerging category of postbiotics. A new review explores the various technologies available for quantifying these modulators of the microbiome.
A new real-time PCR method for identification and enumeration of select probiotics strains “will be of great importance to achieve high quality and efficacious probiotic products”, researchers from Canada report.
Consumers are increasingly aware of CFU on probiotic labels, but we may see more products using AFUs, a measure obtained using flow cytometry that is a fast, more accurate, and potentially cost-effective to traditional plate counts.