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Video Presentation: Behind the scenes of the consensus panel discussion on the definition of fermented foods

/in ISAPP Science Blog /by KC

Numerous misunderstandings and questions exist around the concept of fermented foods. For example:

  • If a food does not contain live microorganisms, can it still be a fermented food?
  • Should the live microbes in fermented foods be called probiotics?
  • Do fermentation microbes colonize the human gut?

The first step in answering these questions is for scientists to come to agreement on what constitutes a fermented food. A new global definition of fermented foods was recently published by 13 interdisciplinary scientists from various fields—microbiology, food science and technology, immunology, and family medicine. In their paper in Nature Reviews Gastroenterology & Hepatology, fermented foods are defined as: “foods and beverages made through desired microbial growth and enzymatic conversions of food components”.

The panel discussion and the definition of fermented foods are covered in this video presentation by the paper’s first author Prof. Maria Marco, from the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of California, Davis. This presentation was originally given at the virtual ISAPP 2020 annual meeting.

The new definition is intended to provide a clearer conceptual understanding of fermented foods for the public and industry, with the authors expecting that in the years ahead, scientists will undertake more hypothesis-driven research to determine the extent that various fermented foods improve human health and precisely how this occurs. More studies that address fermented foods in promoting health will be useful for establishing the importance of fermented foods in dietary guidelines.

The panel acknowledged that regulations on fermented foods from country to country are mainly concerned with food safety — and that, when properly made, fermented foods and their associated microorganisms have a long history of safe use.

 

ISAPP Conference Session

New Probiotic and Prebiotic Society Among Ibero-American Countries

/in News /by KC

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), the Ibero-American Society for Microbiota, Probiotics and Prebiotics (SIAMPyP) was established, with the aim of enhancing communication among researchers and clinicians from Spain, Portugal, Mexico and several South American countries.

SIAMPyP will build on 10 years of collaboration among experts from both sides of the Atlantic, who have come together as SEMiPyP with a common interest in the potential of the microbiome in human health and disease, in promoting and disseminating scientific discovery, in rigor of scientific evidence, and facilitating future research to the benefit of Ibero-America and the globe.

Currently, the plan is for SIAMPyP to convene biennial meetings, the first being planned for March 2021 (dependent on the state of the pandemic) in Madrid and subsequently in 2023 in Mexico City.  Academic sessions of basic and clinical science will be presented in this context, taking advantage of common languages (Spanish and Portuguese) to establish synergies in Latin American countries and the Iberian Peninsula.

The SIAMPyP has fostered connections with other international academic and scientific societies with knowledge in microbiota, probiotics and prebiotics in the pediatric, gastroenterology and neurogastroenterology fields of various Spanish and Portuguese speaking countries, as well as with ISAPP. Likewise, it has the support of research-oriented pharmaceutical and food industries that seek to modulate the microbiota to benefit human health in various clinical settings with probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics.

The current board of directors of SIAMPYP is chaired and represented by doctors from both continents, including the well-known scientists Dr. Francisco Guarner (former ISAPP board member, from Spain), Dr. Guiilermo Alvarez-Calatayud (Spain), Dr. Luis Peña (Spain), as well as Dr. Aldo Maruy (Peru), Dr. Christian Boggio (Argentina) and Dr. Ana Teresa Abreu (Mexico), in addition to members and consultants who support and strengthen it, divided by region, with Latin America being a region with several countries.

SIAMPyP welcomes scientific partners from all Ibero-American countries, at no cost. See www.siampyp.org for further information.

ISAPP welcomes three new board members

/in News /by KC

By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, ISAPP Executive Science Officer

ISAPP is pleased to announce that Profs. Kelly Swanson PhD, Daniel Tancredi PhD, and Gabriel Vinderola PhD have joined the ISAPP board of directors. The expertise of these three globally recognized academic experts complements that of the current board members, together comprising a leading global group of distinguished scientific and clinical experts in the fields of probiotics, prebiotics, synbiotics, fermented foods, and postbiotics.

Read more about ISAPP’s newest board members:

Kelly Swanson is the Kraft Heinz Company Endowed Professor in Human Nutrition, a professor in the Department of Animal Sciences and Division of Nutritional Sciences and an adjunct professor in the Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is an expert in the field of fiber and prebiotics, and brings to ISAPP knowledge of application of these substances to companion and agricultural animals. Kelly, who trained with previous ISAPP Board member, George Fahey, is considered one of the top authorities in animal gut health, microbiome, and nutrition. His research has focused on testing the effects of nutritional intervention on health outcomes, identifying mechanisms by which nutrients impact gastrointestinal microbiota, host gene expression, and host physiology. Kelly served on the prebiotic consensus panel (here), led the ISAPP synbiotics consensus panel, and is lead author on the synbiotics outcome paper, currently in press with Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

Dan Tancredi is a biostatistician with an appointment as an Associate Professor (full professor starting July 1, 2020) in Residence at UC Davis Department of Pediatrics, and is also with the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research. Dan works extensively on NIH-sponsored research and as an NIH scientific reviewer. He has an extensive record of collaboration with ISAPP; he has served as an invited expert and/or speaker at all but one ISAPP meeting since 2009, providing his perspectives on how to improve the quality and scientific impact of probiotic trials and how to conduct systematic reviews that rigorously and transparently synthesize the evidence from these trials. He has been a co-author on 6 ISAPP papers (here, here, here, here, here, here and here), including a 2020 paper “Probiotics as a Tx Resource in Primary Care” published in the Journal of Family Practice (see New publication gives a rundown on probiotics for primary care physicians). Dan was invited to author the Nature commentary on the landmark probiotics trial by Panigrahi, et al. for reducing newborn sepsis in the developing world—showing his reputation as a trusted voice for assessing the quality of probiotic research.

Gabriel Vinderola is a professor at National University of Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina and Principal Researcher at CONICET, at the Dairy Products Institute (UNLCONICET). He is an expert in lactic acid bacteria, fermented foods, and probiotics. Gabriel has forged academic collaborations with academic and industrial scientists in numerous countries in Europe and with industrial colleagues in Argentina. He has been active in several countries in South America working with regulators to assure that their actions on probiotic guidelines are science-based, including his recent efforts consulting on guidelines for probiotics for the Codex Alimentarius. He has written blogs for ISAPP, translated ISAPP videos and infographics into Spanish, and was an expert on the ISAPP consensus panel on postbiotics. His research has focused on technological aspects of probiotics (biomass production, dehydration, storage, food matrices) and fermented foods. He is an active public science communicator in Argentina on the topics of probiotics, prebiotics, fermented foods, and the microbiome. See Growing interest in beneficial microbes and fermented foods in Argentina for some examples. Gabriel represents the first ISAPP board member from South America and we anticipate his involvement will help ISAPP expand its presence and connections in Latin America.

 

Connecting with the ISAPP community: Continuing to advance the science of probiotics and prebiotics

/in ISAPP Science Blog, News /by KC

By Mary Ellen Sanders PhD, executive science officer, ISAPP

On behalf of the ISAPP board of directors, I am reaching out to the ISAPP community to say we hope you are doing well and taking all the necessary steps in your local communities to remain healthy. At present, the global ISAPP community is physically distant but digitally close, and it is important for us to remain connected and strong.

ISAPP’s activities are as important as ever during this time of increased attention to health, and ISAPP is continuing to uphold its commitment to (1) stewardship, (2) advancing the science, and (3) working with stakeholders. Although our annual meeting, which some of you may have initially planned to attend, has been cancelled, other ISAPP activities are continuing or expanding as follows:

 

  • Building on an important topic for our annual meeting, ISAPP is working to develop a strategic approach to communicating the science on probiotics, prebiotics, fermented foods, synbiotics, and postbiotics.
  • The ISAPP board of directors is pleased that our founding board members, Profs. Gregor Reid and Glenn Gibson, have agreed to remain on the board until the 2021 meeting, in particular to help with long-range planning. New academic board members will also be elected, thereby expanding the board. Working together, we will bring fresh insights, strategies and global reach.
  • The board is considering how best to approach our cancelled meeting. In lieu of re-scheduling this year’s in-person meeting, we are planning to have virtual content covering some of the originally scheduled topics. Some discussion group topics will be carried over to the 2021 meeting, while others will be addressed virtually. We will communicate further on this soon.
  • Our newsletter will continue on a monthly basis.
  • Blog postings, which are aimed at either consumers or scientists, remain timely and popular – with new contributions posted on average every 2-3 weeks. Authored by board members and other experts in the field, these blogs provide a forum for opinions and observations on current issues and controversies as well as insights on global fermented foods, critical regulatory actions, and other relevant topics.
  • ISAPP filed comments on March 17 with the American Gastroenterological Association in response to their draft recommendations for probiotic use in GI conditions.
  • Spearheaded by former ISAPP IAC representative to the board, Dr. Roberta Grimaldi, ISAPP has subtitled several of the most popular ISAPP videos in different languages, including Dutch, French, Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Italian and Indonesian. The first of these should be posted by end of April.
  • The ISAPP-Students and Fellows Association has launched a blog program to provide perspectives by young scientists on issues of importance to the probiotic and prebiotic fields. They have also submitted a manuscript to Frontiers in Microbiology discussing a toolkit needed for their future in science: “Future of probiotics and prebiotics: an early career researchers’ perspective”.
  • Three consensus panels have been conducted since May of 2019. A manuscript arising from the synbiotics panel, chaired by Prof. Kelly Swanson, is in press with Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology. The paper summarizing the consensus panel on fermented foods, chaired by Profs. Robert Hutkins and Maria Marco, is almost ready for submission to Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology. A manuscript from the consensus panel on postbiotics, chaired by Prof. Seppo Salminen, is currently being written. All three papers are expected to provide clarity to the field with regard to definition of terms, current evidence for health benefits, and impact on stakeholders.
  • In addition to the three consensus panel papers in progress, several different ISAPP endeavors are at different stages of publication:
    • ISAPP vice president, Prof. Dan Merenstein, and executive science officer, Dr. Mary Ellen Sanders, worked with biostatistician and frequent ISAPP contributor, Prof. Dan Tancredi, to summarize evidence for clinical endpoints for probiotics, to be published in the Journal of Family Physicians. This paper, titled “Probiotics as a Tx resource in primary care”. The paper is currently in press.
    • Several ISAPP board members and other participants in a 2019 meeting discussion group recently submitted to Current Developments in Nutrition a paper titled “Dietary Recommendation on Adequate Intake of Live Microbes: A Path Forward”.
    • Marla Cunningham, the current IAC representative to the ISAPP board, has led an effort to compile results from the IAC Learning Forum from the 2019 ISAPP meeting on the topic of matrix effects impacting probiotic and prebiotic functionality. Manuscript in preparation.
    • Colin Hill and I represented ISAPP on a paper under review at Nutrients initiated by IPA-Europe titled “Criteria to qualify microorganisms as ‘probiotic’ in foods and dietary supplements”. This paper consolidates and fleshes out minimum criteria for use of the term ‘probiotic’ published by different groups, including the 2002 FAO/WHO working group, the 2014 ISAPP consensus paper on probiotics, and the 2018 ISAPP discussion group on global harmonization.
    • Glenn Gibson and Marla Cunningham are coordinating a paper titled “The future of probiotics and prebiotics in human health” as an output from their 2019 discussion group.

See here for all published ISAPP papers.

ISAPP board members, 2019 annual meeting

Messages about probiotics and COVID-19

With many conflicting and confusing health messages circulating during this global pandemic, including some criticisms of our field as well as some unsupported claims made by certain individuals and companies, ISAPP will remain an important touchstone for scientifically accurate information. Focusing on health effects is key to demonstrating probiotic and prebiotic efficacy, and we acknowledge that human studies are the ultimate measure of efficacy, but also, elucidating mechanisms of action help us understand how these interventions interface with the immune system and other mediators of health.  Currently, there is some evidence that certain probiotics/prebiotics can reduce the risk of viral infections (discussed in other blog posts here and here), but it is important to remember that they have not been studied specifically for COVID-19 prevention or treatment. This must be acknowledged when communicating with the wider community.

We greatly appreciate the continued support of our IAC members. The ISAPP Board, colleagues, and SFA will continue to chart a course forward in preparation for life after the pandemic. Our intent is to emerge from these experiences more connected and purposeful than ever. We welcome suggestions on how collectively we can endure and strengthen the science and communications that remain foundations of our field.

 

 

 

New names for important probiotic Lactobacillus species

/in ISAPP Science Blog, News /by KC

By Mary Ellen Sanders, PhD, and Sarah Lebeer, PhD

The genus Lactobacillus was listed as the fifth most important category of living organism to have influenced the planet throughout its evolutionary history in a 2009 book, What on Earth Evolved?. From their central role in food fermentations around the globe to their ability to benefit health in their human and animal hosts, species of Lactobacillus have great importance in our lives.

But for the past several decades there’s been a problem brewing with this genus. Using the research tools available at the time, researchers through history who discovered new bacteria grouped many diverse species under the “umbrella” of the genus Lactobacillus. Since the naming of the first Lactobacillus species, Lactobacillus delbrueckii, in 1901, microbial taxonomists assigned over 250 species to this genus.

These species were a diverse group, and when DNA analysis tools became more sophisticated, many were found to be only loosely related. A consensus grew among scientific experts that, given the genetic makeup of these bacteria, the current Lactobacillus genus was too diverse and did not conform to nomenclature conventions. Moreover, it was important to split the genus into functionally relevant groups that shared certain physiological, metabolic properties and lifestyles in order to facilitate functional and ecological studies on bacteria from this genus.

To tackle this problem, 15 scientists (see below) from 12 different institutions and 7 different countries came together, applying whole genome analysis to analyze each Lactobacillus species. Their proposal, which was accepted for publication in the official journal of record for bacterial names, is that the species once contained within the Lactobacillus genus should now spread over 25 genera, including 23 novel genera (see paper link here).

Based on this polyphasic approach, the authors reclassified the genus Lactobacillus into 25 genera including the emended genus Lactobacillus, which includes host-adapted organisms that have been referred to as the L. delbrueckii group; Paralactobacillus; as well as 23 novel genera: Acetilactobacillus, Agrilactobacillus, Amylolactobacillus, Apilactobacillus, Bombilactobacillus, Companilactobacillus, Dellaglioa, Fructilactobacillus, Furfurilactobacillus, Holzapfelia, Lacticaseibacillus, Lactiplantibacillus, Lapidilactobacillus, Latilactobacillus, Lentilactobacillus, Levilactobacillus, Ligilactobacillus, Limosilactobacillus, Liquorilactobacillus, Loigolactobacilus, Paucilactobacillus, Schleiferilactobacillus, and Secundilactobacillus.

While genus names have changed in some cases, the parts of the names that indicate species were not changed. See the table below for some examples of how names of important probiotic lactobacilli have changed. Note that all new genera proposed for this group begin with the letter “L”. Thus, the ‘L.’ genus abbreviation may still be used.

Because of the importance of this genus and the implications of the name change for both science and industry, the researchers involved in this project have developed a web-based tool that makes it very easy to determine the new names of all Lactobacillus species.

Scientifically, one exciting outcome of these new taxonomic groupings is that species that are more closely related, and therefore are more likely to share physiological traits, are grouped into the same genus. This may facilitate our understanding of common mechanisms that may mediate health benefits, as described in an ISAPP consensus paper and a publication entitled “Shared mechanisms among probiotic taxa: implications for general probiotic claims”.

To date, bacteria in the group Bifidobacterium have not changed, but nomenclature changes are expected soon for this genus, too.

The Lactobacillus taxonomy changes are summarized in this ISAPP infographic for scientists and in this ISAPP infographic for consumers.

Names of important Lactobacillus probiotic species

The following chart lists the new names for some prominent Lactobacillus probiotic species. (Note: All new genera proposed for this group begin with the letter “L”, so abbreviated genus/species – such as L. rhamnosus – remain unchanged.)

 

Current name New name
Lactobacillus casei Lacticaseibacillus casei
Lactobacillus paracasei Lacticaseibacillus paracasei
Lactobacillus rhamnosus Lacticaseibacillus rhamnosus
Lactobacillus plantarum Lactiplantibacillus plantarum
Lactobacillus brevis Levilactobacillus brevis
Lactobacillus salivarius Ligilactobacillus salivarius
Lactobacillus fermentum Limosilactobacillus fermentum
Lactobacillus reuteri Limosilactobacillus reuteri
Lactobacillus acidophilus Unchanged
Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus

(aka Lactobacillus bulgaricus)

 Unchanged
Lactobacillus crispatus Unchanged
Lactobacillus gasseri Unchanged
Lactobacillus johnsonii Unchanged
Lactobacillus helveticus Unchanged

Authors

  • Jinshui Zheng, Huazhong Agricultural University, State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, Hubei Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioinformatics, Wuhan, Hubei, P.R. China.
  • Stijn Wittouck, Research Group Environmental Ecology and Applied Microbiology, Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
  • Elisa Salvetti, Dept. of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
  • Charles M.A.P. Franz, Max Rubner-Institut, Department of Microbiology and Biotechnology, Kiel, Germany
  • Hugh M.B. Harris, School of Microbiology & APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Co. Cork, Ireland
  • Paola Mattarelli, University of Bologna, Dept. of Agricultural and Food Sciences, Bologna, Italy
  • Paul W. O’Toole, School of Microbiology & APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Co. Cork, Ireland
  • Bruno Pot, Research Group of Industrial Microbiology and Food Biotechnology (IMDO), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium
  • Peter Vandamme, Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
  • Jens Walter, Department of Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
  • Koichi Watanabe, National Taiwan University, Dept. of Animal Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan R.O.C.; Food Industry Research and Development Institute, Bioresource Collection and Research Center, Hsinchu, Taiwan R.O.C.
  • Sander Wuyts, Research Group Environmental Ecology and Applied Microbiology, Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
  • Giovanna E. Felis, Dept. of Biotechnology, University of Verona, Verona, Italy
  • Michael G. Gänzle, Department of Agricultural, Food & Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada; Hubei University of Technology, College of Bioengineering and Food Science, Wuhan, Hubei, P.R. China.
  • Sarah Lebeer, Research Group Environmental Ecology and Applied Microbiology, Department of Bioscience Engineering, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.

See ISAPP’s press release on the Lactobacillus name changes here.