Hekto Healthcare has received government recognition for contributing to the development of the health functional food industry. Hekto Healthcare said on Aug. 26 it won a commendation from the commissioner of the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety at the opening event of K-Health Conference 2026.

K-Health Conference 2026 is an event organised by the Korea Health Functional Food Association to share major issues in the domestic health functional food industry and expand exchanges among government, industry and academia.

Hekto Healthcare has continued probiotics research and functional ingredient development based on scientific evidence. It was evaluated as contributing to strengthening the competitiveness of the domestic health functional food industry by broadening the probiotics market through discovering new functions and commercialising products.

Hekto Healthcare established a research and technology cooperation system with Professor Claudio De Simone (클라우디오 드시모네), a global lactic acid bacteria researcher. It contributed to expanding the high-functionality probiotics market by introducing the "De Simone Formula" developed by De Simone to South Korea.

The ingredient is the only one in South Korea to receive individual recognition from the ministry that it can help intestinal health by regulating intestinal immunity. "De Simone 4500," which applies the ingredient, is a high-content product with 450 billion CFU, the highest guaranteed bacterial count in South Korea.

More recently, Hekto Healthcare's self-developed compound probiotics ingredient "BN-202M" was recognised as having a function that can help reduce body fat and was approved as an individually recognised health functional food ingredient. Through this, it is expanding its probiotics research area from intestinal health to body fat reduction and other functions.

Hekto Healthcare has secured a library of about 3,000 proprietary strains and built systems for next-generation sequencing technology and functional evaluations, continuing ingredient development.

CEO Kim Seok-jin (김석진) said, "This commendation is meaningful in that it recognises Hekto Healthcare's efforts to continue research and development in the health functional food and probiotics fields based on scientific evidence." He added, "We will continue to present products and solutions that consumers can trust based on ongoing R&D, and work harder to strengthen the global competitiveness of South Korea's health functional food industry."