The International Probiotics Association (IPA) and Probiota Congress culminated after three days of great conferences and networking sessions with 470 industry peers: a sold-out event! The IPA closed out our work with the IPA’s Board of Directors (IPA BoD) meeting on Wednesday, February 8, 2023, from 2 to 6 PM.
New Scope Expansion: Probiotics + Postbiotics, Prebiotics, Synbiotics
The major headline to report to our membership is the news of the IPA BoD vote to expand IPA’s scope and complement our historical focus on probiotics. This scope expansion will include the ‘biotics’, comprised of Postbiotics, Prebiotics and Synbiotics within the human, infant and companion animal segments of food and dietary supplements.
Because these categories so nicely complement the probiotics market, the BoD has spent many months optimizing a strategy to help the probiotics industry grow in response to market demands; this includes a scope expansion, intended to focus on the ‘biotics’. In no way will this impede our focused efforts regarding the probiotics category. In fact, it will only strengthen our ownership within these ‘biotic’ categories. We will continue our solid path of driving and upholding the probiotic category as we replicate our past achievements in these biotic categories. To emulate the successes of the probiotic category, IPA BoD will start work on building the required frameworks and organizational structure for the expanded scope that will enable an intentional and fruitful future for the probiotics industry. It is a natural progression for the evolution of IPA, and we are delighted to announce this strategic focus.
Initial efforts will include creation of a road map and a gap analysis of the resources required to properly steward these new areas of work. Stay tuned for a call out for participants.
New IPA President Appointment
After Mr. Kevin Mehring’s departure at the end of 2022, the IPA BoD voted to elect Dr. Amy Smith as the interim president, which concludes in late 2023. We thank Kevin for his years of support and dedication to the association, and look forward to work with Amy, who has much experience within the IPA. Amy Smith has occupied several IPA roles, as committee chair and as vice-president of the BoD. IPA will be going into an election cycle later this year for a new BoD and executive committee for 2024. Welcome Amy! We are honored to continue working with you!
IPA announces a new staff position
After joining the IPA in August 2022, Ms. Meryl Massot will transition to a newly created position within IPA staff. Reporting to the Executive Director, Meryl will occupy the role of ‘Project Coordinator and Committee Support’. This position was created to ensure the continuity of committee engagement and project planning to support IPA membership values and long-term growth and will also support the scope expansion. We look forward to expanding our success into the future with Meryl in her new role. Congratulations Meryl!
Meryl’s former role as Member and Events Coordinator will be filled by Ms. Kristina Paraskevakos, who has previously supported IPA on a part-time basis. We welcome Kristina as she takes on more responsibilities within the IPA team.
About IPA
The International Probiotics Association (IPA) is a global non-profit organization bringing together through its membership, the probiotic sector’s stakeholders including but not limited to academia, scientists, health care professionals, consumers, industry, and regulators. The IPA’s mission is to promote the safe and efficacious use of probiotics throughout the world. Holding NGO status before Codex Alimentarius and observer status at ISO, the IPA is also recognized as the unified “Global Voice of Probiotics” around the world.
