Precision approaches to microbiota modulation: Using specific fiber structures to direct the gut microbial ecosystem for better health

By now, hundreds of scientific articles show the differences in gut microbiota composition and function between states of health and disease, leading to the idea that gut microbiota modulation is a promising way to achieve better health. But in practice, changing the complex community of microbes in the gut has proved challenging—the gut microbiota of […]

New publication co-authored by ISAPP board members gives an overview of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, and postbiotics in infant formula

For meeting the nutritional needs of infants and supporting early development, human milk is the ideal food—and this is reflected in breastfeeding guidelines around the world, including the World Health Organization’s recommendation that babies receive human milk exclusively for the first six months of life and that breastfeeding be continued, along with complementary foods, up […]

Can the microbiota help protect against viral infections? Summary of an ISAPP discussion group

By Drs. Karen Scott, University of Aberdeen, and Sarah Lebeer, University of Antwerp As part of the ISAPP virtual annual meeting 2020, around 85 members of the ISAPP community joined us in a Zoom discussion forum to discuss the topic: “Do our resident microbes help protect against viral infections?” A scientific perspective on this topic […]

New synbiotic definition lays the groundwork for continued scientific progress

By Karen Scott, Mary Ellen Sanders, Kelly Swanson, Glenn Gibson, and Bob Hutkins When Glenn Gibson and Marcel Roberfroid first introduced the prebiotic concept in 1995, they also conceived that prebiotics could be combined with probiotics to form synbiotics. In 2011, Gibson and Kolida described additional criteria for defining synbiotics and proposed that synbiotics could […]

ISAPP Conference Session

New Probiotic and Prebiotic Society Among Ibero-American Countries

By Prof. Gabriel Vinderola PhD,  Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering from the National University of Litoral and Principal Researcher from CONICET at Dairy Products Institute (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina On February 8, 2019, within the framework of the X Workshop of the Spanish Society for Microbiota, Probiotics and Prebiotics (SEMiPyP), […]

Hear from ISAPP board members in webinar covering probiotic and prebiotic mechanisms of action

This webinar is now complete — see the recorded version here. New probiotic and prebiotic trials are published all the time – but when they show a health benefit, what do we know about the basic science behind it? To provide insight into this topic, ISAPP has partnered with the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI) […]

¿Cómo permanecen vivos los probióticos hasta el momento de ser consumidos?

Por Gabriel Vinderola, Dr. en Química, Investigador Principal del Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicos y Técnicas (CONICET) en el Instituto de Lactología Industrial (INLAIN, CONICET-UNL) y Profesor Asociado de la Facultad de Ingeniería Química de la Universidad Nacional del Litoral. Como docente-investigador, la mayor parte del tiempo se comparte con personas del ambito académico y […]

How do probiotics stay alive until they are consumed?

By Prof. Gabriel Vinderola PhD,  Associate Professor of Microbiology at the Faculty of Chemical Engineering from the National University of Litoral and Principal Researcher from CONICET at Dairy Products Institute (CONICET-UNL), Santa Fe, Argentina See the Spanish version of this blog post here. As a professor, most of my days are spent with people from […]

EFSA’s QPS committee issues latest updates

By Bruno Pot, PhD, Vrije Universiteit Brussel and Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, Executive Science Officer, ISAPP On July 2nd, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) published the 12th update of the qualified presumption of safety (QPS) list, a list of safe biological agents, recommended for intentional addition to food or feed, covering notifications from October […]

New publication addresses the question: Which bacteria truly qualify as probiotics?

Although the international scientific consensus definition of probiotics, published in 2014, is well known—”live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health benefit on the host”—the word is often used incorrectly in practice. A recent article published in Frontiers in Microbiology builds on this definition and describes four criteria for accurate use of […]