Despite the impact of fermented foods and beverages on gastrointestinal wellbeing and diseases, their many health benefits or recommended consumption has not been widely adopted by global food guidelines. In general, the approach of the legal systems regarding food guidelines is broadly consistent and their structures may be presented in different formats (pyramid, pie chart…). Some questions arose: Why is it useful to consume fermented food beyond their nutritional value? Which foods contain live microbes and which do not? Professor Seppo Salminen will present the case for such inclusion in dietary guidelines and some perspectives for challenging health authorities around the world to consider advocating for the many benefits of these foods.
Who is Seppo Salminen?
Seppo Salminen is Professor and Director of the Functional Foods Forum, University of Turku, Turku, Finland. He graduated in Food Science and Nutrition at the Washington State University (USA) with a MS Degree in Food Chemistry and with a MSc degree in Microbiology at the University of Helsinki (Finland). He is also certified with a PhD in Biochemistry and Toxicology from the University of Surrey in the United Kingdom
His research interests are mainly focusing on intestinal microbiota and health, microbiota modulation, probiotics, prebiotics, functional foods, novel foods, food and health and EU Food Regulations.
Professor Salminen is also an expert member in several regulatory committees on food and health (Finland and EU), including the European Food Safety Authority NDA Scientific Panel (9 years, from now).
He published over 400 refereed articles on topics like food and health, microbiology, probiotics, prebiotics, intestinal microbiota, food safety and functional foods, as well as several book chapters and text books about probiotics, prebiotics, food additives and functional foods themes.