Cited by 158Probiotics and Fermented FoodsComplementary and Alternative Medicine StudiesGut microbiota and health

Reappraisal of probiotics’ safety in human

Sotoudegan, Farzaneh, Daniali, Marzieh, Hassani, Shokoufeh, Nikfar, Shekoufeh, Abdollahi, Mohammad·2019·Food and Chemical Toxicology

Abstract

Contrary to the safe usage of probiotics for years, their threat is still worthy of attention. Several risks have been explained or mentioned in the case reports, clinical trials and experimental studies. Due to a large number of probiotic products worldwide, the certainty of the safety of such products is a matter of concern. Current review appraises all the available information about a range of adverse effects by probiotics in different populations of consumers and almost all qualified investigations and reports, relevant to the adverse effects of probiotics. Furthermore, the effects of basic or original sources of probiotics were studied. The principally noticed adverse effects of probiotics are systemic infections, gastrointestinal side effects, skin complications, inflammation of endocardium, gene transfer from probiotics to the normal microbial flora, metabolic harmful impacts of probiotics, and immune system stimulation. The most at-risk groups consist of infants, elderly people, patients in hospitalized condition, and those with immunodeficiency due to a genetic or acquired disease. The existing evidence suggests careful evaluation of the risk-benefit ratio of probiotics prior to prescription or recommendation to use.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.fct.2019.04.032

Cites

103 of 103 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Lactobacillus strains have been found to carry resistance genes to erythromycin, tetracycline, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, lincosamide, macrolides, and streptogramins.

    “Additionally, Lactobacillus strains have been found to carry resistance genes to antibiotics such as erythromycin, tetracycline, streptomycin, chloramphenicol, lincosamide, macrolides, and streptogramins [28].”

    From Current Concepts in Probiotic Safety and Efficacy (2026) · cites this paper as [28]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Sotoudegan, F., Daniali, M., Hassani, S., Nikfar, S., & Abdollahi, M.
Affiliations
  • Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Research Center (IR)
  • Tehran University of Medical Sciences (IR)
  • Pharmaceutical Management and Economics Research Center (IR)
Corresponding author
  • Nikfar, Shekoufeh
  • Abdollahi, Mohammad
Venue
Food and Chemical Toxicology
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2019-07
Volume
129
Pages
22-29
ISSN
0278-6915 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2936535283
Cited by
154
References
102
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 15 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 28 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 3 · 2017: 1
FWCI
1.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Food and Chemical Toxicology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Food Science › Probiotics and Fermented Foods
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Complementary and alternative medicine › Complementary and Alternative Medicine Studies
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Gut microbiota and health
Keywords
probiotics, probiotic safety, adverse effects, systemic infection, gastrointestinal adverse effects, skin complications, endocarditis, metabolic effects, immunostimulation, immunodeficiency, infants, older adults, hospitalized patients, risk-benefit assessment
MeSH terms
Humans, Probiotics, Patient Safety, Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review