Dannon Responds

Not that I've been in a complete tizzy about yogurt bacteria. I'm still eating Activa, and my insides are doing quite nicely, thank you.

But with my curiosity piqued regarding exactly what "Bifidus Regularis TM" is exactly, I was pleased that Dannon did finally respond to my query. Amongst some boilerplate statements about how the company strives for excellence, etc., yes, fine, thank you, here is what they said about the bacteria:

"Bifidus Regularis" is the commercial name for the proprietary strain of Bifidobacterium in Activia. Dannon is the only worldwide manufacture that can use this specific probiotic strain. One way we protect our probiotic patents is to trademark the name of the culture (give this living species a commercial name).

Ahem. Hmm. Well, that explains the "TM" mark after the name. Proprietary strain. Yes.

But it fails to answer the primary question: is "Bifidus Regularis TM" a genetically-engineered bacteria or not? I've written back to inquire. Stay tuned.