The group said that probiotics for children is a largely untapped market in Europe and could be another outlet for the use of the bacteria in human health.
This move is in partnership with the Italian firm Pediatrica and will see strains BB-12, TH-4 and CRL-431 put into supplements in that country.
Lasse Nagell, global sales director, told NutraIngredients.com that its move in Italy could even open the floodgates for a host of other companies to market child probiotics.
Nagell said: " Probiotics aimed at children is a newer segment in the market for probiotics.
Customers are coming to us and looking to expand the market and this is one way forward. "
Chr Hansen, which has offered a child probiotic in the US for some time, believes there is still room for expansion and segmenting the children sector even further into age groups.
" This is a possibility depending if any new studies come forward, " Nagel said.
There are two main differences between adult and children probiotics, Nagel said.
One is the type of application for it to be contained in and the other is the potency.
Chewable would be better for children, Nagel said, and as a general rule-of-thumb the potency would be some ten times less than the upper adult level.
However, Chr Hansen said it was " certain " other companies will follow and launch probiotic products aimed at children in other European countries as well during the near future.
Chr Hansen already has Acidolac and Trilac on the Polish market, which it says have both seen " good results ."
The global retail market for probiotic dietary supplements was valued by Euromonitor International at just over US$1bn in 2005, and was seen to have experienced 46.9 per cent growth between 2002 and 2005.
Growth of 32.6 per cent is predicted through 2010.
Probiotics remain a major growth market and most of the major European dairy and ingredients groups believe that they will be one of the dairy sector's major growth drivers over the next few years.
According to Frost & Sullivan, the European sector is set to more than triple in value over the next few years, to reach $137.9 million (€118.5m) in 2010.
Last month Chr Hansen announced it will begin large-scale tests on a new technology that could result in more robust and longer lasting probiotic bacteria for a wide range of products, from dairy through to cereal and snacks.
Probiotics are live bacterial strains that are generally understood to deliver digestive benefits in the gut.