Our first functional food product

In 1994 Skånemejerier was busy perfecting what would be our first functional food products – a viscous oatmeal – based fruit drink called ProViva and a live yogurt drink called Prima Liv. ProViva was the first and only product of its type as all its rivals are milk-based. It contains Lactobacillus plantarum 299v, an active bacterial culture which appears to offer some excellent benefits. 

The formulation was developed in conjunction with Probi, a company which was established in 1990 specifically to develop functional ingredients for food. Probi was based on a research project which had been in progress at Lund University for several years. The project was being carried out in collaboration between microbiologists, surgeons and food engineers, with the aim of developing a completely new kind of a nutritional product. The product was to be based on oats, and be fermented with a special lactic acid bacterium (one of the lactobacilli) which was able to survive passage through the gastro-intestinal tract, where it would have a positive effect.