Narrator: This is Science Today. Probiotics, which are often consumed as live microorganisms in products such as yogurt, are ‘good bacteria’ that have been found to aid disorders such as Inflammatory Bowel Disease, or IBD. Now, Dr. Eyal Raz of the University of California, San Diego has discovered the bacteria is just as effective when it’s inactivated through the process of gamma radiation.

Raz: Irradiation, what it does is it reduces the metabolic activity to almost zero and it doesn’t modify the cell surface as heat kill does to the bacteria. So when we use this irradiated bacteria, we found it works as good as viable bacteria.

Narrator: Currently, probiotics cannot be used in most food products because the bacteria are metabolically active and will induce fermentation.

Raz: But when you irradiate them, you can actually add them as a food supplement to anything you want because they are not going to affect the taste and the consistency and the structure of this food.

Narrator: For Science Today, I’m Larissa Branin.