Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide, when preparing food products for dysphagia patients, a food product for dysphagia patients having useful functions of probiotics and capable of delivering probiotics administered to a dysphagia patient to the intestines as viable cells by imparting functions of probiotics to such food products, and a thickening composition therefor. For achieving these objects, the present invention provides a thickening composition for dysphagia patients prepared as a powder mixture by mixing dried probiotic cells or a dried probiotic cell preparation and one or more polysaccharides selected from the group consisting of polysaccharides consisting of xanthan gum or guar gum and hydrolysates of these polysaccharides, wherein in the powder mixture, the probiotics and the polysaccharides are allowed to coexist in a contact state.