A €6m European Union project is investigating ways to advance research and develop fibre-based ingredients for functional foods and food supplements with a focus on immune function.
Scientists have identified the gut microbial pattern that corresponds with excess body weight, and deepen our understanding of how the gut microflora interacts with host metabolism.
Adding blueberries or broccoli to the diet may shift the balance of bacteria colonizing the gut, and improve inflammation associated with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), suggests new data from a mouse study.
Lactobacillus reuteri-containing gum can significantly reduce halitosis, Danish researchers have found, although the mechanism of action remains a mystery.
Processed strawberries may deliver the same amount of beneficial compounds as the whole fruit, says a new study from Spain that supports the potential health boosting effects of processed strawberry products.
Mapping the microbiome and the increasing sophistication of gene sequencing and analysis have in just a few years completely changed the research landscape for microbiota, and looks set to answer many to-date unresolved ‘mechanism of action’ questions.
Dr Jacques Ravel, one the world’s leading vaginal microbia researchers, says revelations about differing ‘community types’ of vaginal bacteria could drastically improve treatments for the common condition, vaginosis.
The Boston-based Human Microbiome Project is three years into a five-year project that is throwing up revelations about how human microorganisms behave – and its leader predicts a big future for pre- and probiotics.
Probiotic bacteria consumed in a yogurt may not change the host’s gut populations, but they do influence carbohydrate metabolism by the resident microbes, according to an ‘elegant’ new study using identical twins and germ-free mice.
Certain probiotic strains underperform in the presence of iron-rich environments created during the active phase of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), UK researchers have found.
An International Dairy Federation taskforce has updated a 2002 inventory of safe microbial species including some probiotic species – from 112 to 221 – a list the group hopes will allow exemption from EU Novel Foods and US New Dietary Ingredient (NDI)...
Antibiotics may achieve better results at preventing recurrent urinary tract infections, but they also increase the risk of antibiotic resistance three-fold, according to new research.
The ability of probiotics to influence the immune system differs greatly, depending on the strain, Dutch and Belgian researcher have said in findings that could influence clinical trial design.
A novel process for enriching bread and pasta with vitamin B2 could be extended to a wide range of cereal based foods and beverages, claims new research.
The potential beneficial effects of select bacterial strains are dependent on the organisms being alive, says a new study that supports the WHO definition of probiotics as being ‘live microorganisms’.
Relying on your gut to make decisions may have a lot of truth to it, as research suggests that probiotic modification of the gut may influence the brain and affect mood.
Danish supplier Chr Hansen is reaping the benefits of more than 10 years researching genomics and bioinformatics of its probiotic and other bacterial strains, with inhouse analysis that can cost less than €1000 per strain.
Data gaps are preventing a comprehensive assessment of the risk and benefits of probiotics in processed cereal-based baby foods, finds a Norwegian food safety body, which has flagged up the need for randomized placebo-controlled research.
Dietary changes may have rapid effects on the composition of bacteria in the gut and may influence the harvest of nutrients from the foods we eat, suggest new data with implications for understanding how gut health affects body weight.
Milk fermented with Lactobacillus casei may help to alleviate fever caused by norovirus gastroenteritis by correcting imbalances of intestinal microflora, according to a new study.
The major current challenge for probiotics is in developing and marketing new probiotic foods, according to a new review outlining the potential for encapsulated probiotics.
A leading probiotics researcher says the ongoing uncertainty about endpoints and biomarkers in European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claim evaluations, means the best chance for probiotic products to make claims is to combine them with nutrients...
Early exposure to bacterial strains during pregnancy, breast feeding, and early life has a profound impact on weight gain in the offspring, says a new study with rats.
Chr Hansen has joined the industrial platform Kluyer Centre for Genomics of Industrial Fermentation and will benefit from early access to research results on gene sequencing of enzyme and culture production strains.
A liquid extract from black elderberry may inhibit the growth of pathogenic bacteria by upwards of 70 percent, suggest new data from cell studies from Justus-Liebig University in Germany.
Spanish researchers have described a strain of probiotic bacteria as a new “promising tool” in the treatment of ulcers caused by Helicobacter pylori in their report published in the latest edition of the journal Applied and Environmental Microbiology.
Probiotic bacteria strains tailored to express produce conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) may be able to modify fat tissues, and could play a role in the prevention and treatment of obesity, according to new research in mice.
Mapping how the gut microbiota respond to probiotic strains may help produce a framework for “evaluating and optimizing probiotic-based functional foods”, say researchers from Danone and Harvard.
Clinically measured, increased levels of microbiota such as lactobacilli and/or bifidobacteria in the gut will not alone validate health claims, the European Food Safety Authority’s health claims panel has affirmed this week. But significant reductions...
Dutch researchers have shown that probiotic bacteria adapt to our intestines, results that will deepen our understanding of how probiotics impact health.
A group representing some of the key players in the probiotic world has welcomed certain commitments made by the European Food Safety Authority, saying these will help open up the road to clearer communication on health claims.
UK-based marine biotechnology firm Aquapharm Biodiscovery has received £4.2m in extra financing from its current investors which includes Tate & Lyle Ventures – a move it says will boost further development and commercialisation of its marine micro-organisms...
Bacterial populations in the gut of diabetics differ from non-diabetics, says a new study from Denmark that may open up a potential role for modify gut microflora with probiotics and prebiotics and improve health.
A dossier containing 13 randomised controlled trials, 6 observational studies, and 15 non-human studies has failed to impress European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientists because the four strains in question were not sufficiently characterised.
A breakthrough in the understanding of how bacteria bind to the mucus layer protecting the gut lining could result in more effective probiotic design and selection.
Specially ‘designed’ probiotics may prevent the development of disease during gut infections of bacterial pathogens, according to new research presented today.
The gut health boosting effects of probiotics may also extend to preventing and eradicating parasitic infections, according to ‘early data’ from the US.
Daily supplements of the probiotic bacterial strain Lactobaccilus casei rhamnosus may boost the immune health of children, and prevents many infections, says new research.
Dutch scientists have reported that the potential immune system enhancing effects of probiotics may be due to an activation of specific genes in the walls of our intestines.
Identifying the bacteria in a food product – be they probiotic or pathogenic – may be as easy as reading a bar-code, according to a novel technique called optical mapping.
