Entries by KC

Bacterial genes lead researchers to discover a new way that lactic acid bacteria can make energy and thrive in their environments

/in ISAPP Science Blog

Lactic acid bacteria are an important group of bacteria associated with the human microbiome. Notably, they are also responsible for creating fermented foods such as sauerkraut, yogurt, and kefir. In the past two decades, culture-independent techniques have allowed scientists to sequence the genomes of these bacteria and discover more about their capabilities. Researchers studying a […]

Decoding a Probiotic Product Label

/in Consumer Blog

By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD Interested in knowing what’s in your probiotic product? Unfortunately, there are many ways that probiotic product labels can fall short. First, not all items labeled as “probiotic” truly meet the scientific criteria for a probiotic product. See here for information on what qualifies as a probiotic. Some fermented foods are […]

ISAPP begins its search for the next executive director

/in News

By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD When Glenn Gibson, Irene Lenior-Wijnkoop and I first kicked around the idea of an organization for scientists and dedicated to science of probiotics and prebiotics (in 1999), I don’t think any of us would have anticipated that in 2022 that organization would be celebrating its 20th anniversary. But I do […]

ISAPP awards the Glenn Gibson Early Career Research Prize to two diet and gut health researchers

/in News, ISAPP Science Blog

The ISAPP board of directors is pleased to announce that the 2022 Glenn Gibson Early Career Research Prize has been awarded to two promising researchers in the field of probiotics, prebiotics and related substances. Dr. Martin Laursen, Senior Researcher at the National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, has demonstrated excellence in his work on […]

Do fermented foods contain probiotics?

/in Consumer Blog, ISAPP Science Blog

By Prof. Maria Marco, PhD, Department of Food Science & Technology, University of California, Davis We frequently hear that “fermented foods are rich in beneficial probiotics.” But is this actually true? Do fermented foods contain probiotics? The quick answer to this question is no – fermented foods are generally not sources of probiotics. Despite the […]

Pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila as a postbiotic: EFSA approval and beyond

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Prof. Seppo Salminen, University of Turku, Finland Earlier this year, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) delivered an opinion that heat-treated Akkermansia muciniphila is safe for use as a novel food in the European Union. EFSA described A. muciniphila as a “well‐characterised non‐toxin producing, avirulent microorganism that has been reported as part of normal […]

ISAPP’s 2021 year in review

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, ISAPP Executive Science Officer The upcoming year-end naturally leads us to reflect about what has transpired over the past 12 months. From my perspective working with ISAPP, I witnessed ISAPP board members and the broader ISAPP community working creatively and diligently to find solutions to scientific challenges in probiotics, prebiotics […]

Research on the microbiome and health benefits of fermented foods – a 40 year perspective

/in Consumer Blog, ISAPP Science Blog

By Prof. Bob Hutkins, PhD, University of Nebraska Lincoln, USA Many ISAPPers remember when fermented foods attracted hardly any serious attention from scientists outside the field. Certainly, most clinicians and health professionals gave little notice to fermented foods. In the decades before there were artisan bakeries and microbreweries proliferating on Main Street USA, even consumers […]

Lactobacilli dominate the vagina in Belgian women

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Prof. Sarah Lebeer, Research Professor in Microbiology and Molecular Biology, Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Belgium A little over a year ago, I wrote an ISAPP blog post about the setup of our Isala citizen science project on women’s health. Now, I can proudly say that we have the first results. Last […]

Current issues in probiotic quality: An update for industry

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders, ISAPP, Dr. Kit Goldman, USP, Dr. Amy Roe, P&G, Dr. Christina Vegge, Dr. Jean Schoeni, Eurofins With probiotic dietary supplement use growing globally and an increasing array of products on the market, probiotic quality is an issue of perpetual relevance to industry. Best practices for producing high-quality probiotics change frequently, […]

The American College of Gastroenterology recommends against use of probiotics for primary or secondary prevention of C. difficile

/in Uncategorized

By Prof. Daniel Merenstein MD, Georgetown University School of Medicine and Prof. Eamonn Quigley MD FRCP FACP MACG FRCPI,  Houston Methodist Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) recently published ACG Clinical Guidelines: Prevention, Diagnosis, and Treatment of Clostridioides difficile Infections. This review considers probiotics for prevention of CDI. The […]

The USDA Global Branded Food Products Database is Now Accepting Data on Live Microbes – Call for Data Submission

/in ISAPP Science Blog

Marie E. Latulippe, MS, RDN, Director of Science Programs and Brienna Larrick, PhD, PMP Scientific Program Manager, Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS), Washington DC As noted by Marco et al. (2020), evidence from observational studies and randomized controlled trials suggests that the consumption of safe, live microbes can support health. […]

Should the concept of postbiotics make us see probiotics from a new perspective?

/in ISAPP Science Blog, Uncategorized

By Dr. 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 In early May 2021 an ISAPP consensus panel  defined postbiotics as “a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers […]

Virtual events continue to fill gaps as in-person meetings are being planned

/in News

Prof. Bob Hutkins, PhD, University of Nebraska – Lincoln, USA For scientists, annual meetings provide coveted opportunities to hear about the latest scientific advances from expert researchers, and they are where students and trainees get to present their research, often for the first time. Of course, meeting and socializing with colleagues, both new and old, […]

Using probiotics to support digestive health for dogs

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Kelly S. Swanson, PhD, The Kraft Heinz Company Endowed Professor in Human Nutrition, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA Because dogs are considered to be members of the family by most pet owners today, their health and well-being is a top priority. As with humans, nutritional products supporting gastrointestinal health are some of the […]

Do antibiotics ‘wipe out’ your gut bacteria?

/in Consumer Blog, ISAPP Science Blog

By Dr. Karen Scott, University of Aberdeen, UK Antibiotics have been an important tool in medicine to kill pathogenic bacteria and treat infectious diseases for many decades. But for most of those decades, scientists had limited awareness of the community of ‘good’ microbes that reside in our guts and other parts of the body. Now […]

Can control of body malodor using probiotic topical cream be considered as a health benefit?

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Victoria Onwuliri, Masters degree student, with Dr. Kingsley C. Anukam, Department of Medical Laboratory Science, Faculty of Health Sciences and Technology, College of Health Sciences, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Nnewi Campus, Nnewi, Anambra State, Nigeria. I recall years back as a teenager, axillary sweating and pubertal odor were one of the overwhelming challenges I experienced. […]

Bacterial vesicles: Emerging potential postbiotics

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Dr. 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 The recently published ISAPP consensus paper defines a postbiotic as “a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that confers a […]

What do we mean by ‘conferring a health benefit on the host’?

/in Consumer Blog, ISAPP Science Blog

By Prof. Colin Hill, University College Cork, Ireland Four of the Consensus definitions produced by ISAPP in recent years (see 1-4 below) finish with a similar wording, insisting that probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics and postbiotics must “confer a health benefit on the host”. This proviso was included to explicitly reinforce the fact that the raison d’etre […]

ISAPP welcomes Anisha Wijeyesekera, PhD, as new board member

/in News

As of the June, 2021 virtual annual meeting, the ISAPP board of directors is pleased to welcome a new member-at-large: Anisha Wijeyesekera, PhD – Lecturer in Human Microbiome, Diet & Health in the Food Microbial Sciences Unit, Department of Food & Nutritional Sciences, University of Reading, UK. Wijeyesekera is an early career researcher with expertise […]

A postbiotic is not simply a dead probiotic

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Dr. 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 Postbiotics, recently addressed in an ISAPP consensus panel paper, are defined as a preparation of inanimate microorganisms and/or their components that […]

Pharmacists as influencers of probiotic use

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Kristina Campbell, science writer It’s not an uncommon scene in a pharmacy: someone standing in front of the shelf of probiotic products, picking up various bottles and reading the labels, looking uncertain. The person’s doctor may have recommended a certain brand of probiotic to prevent diarrhea with a prescribed course of antibiotics—but they’ve just […]

Follow up from ISAPP webinar – Probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and fermented foods: how to implement ISAPP consensus definitions

/in ISAPP Science Blog

By Mary Ellen Sanders PhD, Executive Science Officer, ISAPP On the heels of the most recent ISAPP consensus paper – this one on postbiotics – ISAPP sponsored a webinar for industry members titled Probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, postbiotics and fermented foods: how to implement ISAPP consensus definitions. This webinar featured short presentations outlining definitions and key […]