The incorporation of probiotic bacteria into foods and their use as starter cultures in fermented foods, presents many technical challenges. The food matrix contains a variety of ingredients that impact the ability of live bacteria to survive through processing and storage that precede consumption. In this sense, techniques, such encapsulation, can protect probiotic bacteria in food applications.
Probiotics must be assessed for health benefits and safety before they can be introduced into the food products. Many probiotics have a long history of use in fermented foods that bestowed them GRAS status, but when novel microbes are introduced, their efficacy, risk-to-benefit ratio and safety aspects, particularly in an at-risk population need to be assessed. LAB in food and the GI tract could act as a potential reservoir of antibiotic-resistance genes and may participate in the exchange of genes with strains present in the same environment to produce multidrug resistant strains.
This symposium considers the concept of probiotics as a whole, as well as ranging from their selection criteria mode of actions up to their food applications. Last but not least, regulations and guidance available in the EU to substantiate a health claim and the qualified perception of safety (QPS) concept will be also considered.