Though they are in the business of healing patients, hospitals and long-term care facilities are rife with germs and bacteria that can hinder a patient’s road to recovery. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), two million patients per year pick up infections in U.S. hospitals. About 90,000 die as a result of these deaths, with approximately 70% caused by bacteria that are resistant to at least one antibiotic. Those figures were a compelling factor in the creation of HHice Cream Probiotic Defense, a “healthy hospital” frozen yogurt mix developed by NEWtritious, a relatively new startup food and beverage company based in Los Angeles, CA. 

HHice Cream, which debuted at Natural Products Expo West, is designed to deliver “viable and potent probiotics along with a beneficial serving of vitamins and minerals,” and provides “much-needed supplementation” in the form of a cooling soft-serve to coax patients—especially pediatric and geriatric patients—who are reluctant to eat in the hospital. The product’s marquis ingredient is GanedenBC30, a patented strain of probiotic bacteria Bac