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Power pellets: The beads in these straws contain freeze-dried "friendly" bacteria that dissolve in liquid

Courtesy Unistraw

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Peter Baron needed a catchy name for his latest invention, a new kind of straw that added flavor to a drink. He reckoned Suckahh was perfect. "We took it to the U.S. and we got slaughtered," admits the 58-year-old Australian inventor. "They said it was probably the worst name you could ever do."

Baron eventually came up with the more palatable Sipahh. Since launching them in late 2005, he's sold more than 500 million of the plastic straws, which are filled with flavor beads that dissolve when milk is sucked — or sipped — through them. End to end, he boasts, the straws would go twice around the world. But it's not far enough. Baron believes he can more than double his sales by putting beads of bacteria inside the straws.

Breakfasting on bacteria — call it the billion-bug diet, because that's how many the company says will be in each straw — might seem like a disgusting idea. But Baron's Sydney-based company, Unistraw, says there's a lucrative and growing global market for probiotic bacteria (the name comes from the Greek words "for" and "life"). These so-called "good" bugs live in the human gut; the claimed benefits of boosting their numbers include better digestion and a stronger immune system, the easing of allergies, stronger nails and shinier hair.

For about a century, scientists have been studying the role bacteria play in the gastrointestinal tract, a complex ecosystem made up of helpful and harmful bugs whose interactions aren't fully understood. The bugs begin to infiltrate when we're born. Some make us sick, while others help the body work better. An average adult gut contains about a kilogram of bacteria — 100 trillion bugs of some 500 different species.

Unistraw's interest is spurred by a different set of numbers. "What's exciting," says managing director Tim York, "is that today it's a $7 billion market, and it's projected to be worth $20 billion by 2010." The big players include companies like Japan's Yakult and France's Danone (Dannon in the U.S.), which sell probiotic bacteria in yogurt. Dannon's Activia yogurt was launched in America in 2006 and passed $100 million in sales in its first year.

Treating Ourselves
York insists that probiotics aren't a passing fad but part of a trend in which people try to prevent illness through food and exercise rather than waiting until they get sick and taking medicine. The company's advisers, he says, "see probiotics, particularly for immunity and digestive health, as the largest and most enduring functional food trend — significantly bigger than omega-3 and plant oils to lower cholesterol."

To stake its claim, the Australian company has just done a deal with Denmark's Danisco to produce straws containing three strains of freeze-dried bacteria that "wake up" when they come into contact with liquid. Unlike yogurt, the straws don't need to be refrigerated and can be consumed in juice. The price could be as little as half that of a probiotic yogurt.

The big targets are Asia and Latin America. York believes China has huge potential thanks to a new version of the straw, which has been downsized to fit onto the side of the small cartons for juice or ultra-heat-treated (UHT) milk produced by global packaging giant Tetra Pak.

These packs are designed to preserve milk or juice without refrigeration for a year — which means all bacteria in them must be killed. York's pitch is that the new Aussie straw can not only add flavor but put the "good" bacteria back. "Tetra Pak is excited because the straw allows the package to do things it can't do today," he says. "In the next three to five years, we'd like to be selling a billion-plus straws a year."