ABSTRACT
A concise de‚nition of probiotics describes them as “live microorganisms that, when administered in adequate amounts, confer a health bene‚t to the host.”1 They have been used worldwide for the last 10-15 years to prepare fermented dairy products, but they can also be found in other food products, and often they are freeze dried and sold as food supplements in sachets or capsules. This wide use of probiotics in commercial products, as well as other functional foods, sensitized consumer groups and governments against the possible indiscriminate use of their health attributes in communication media and advertisements. Therefore, national and supranational organizations are now trying to control the use of Health Claims in the labeling of functional foods or food through TOKUHO in Japan (Foods for Speci‚ed Health Use (FOSHU)), the Evidence-Based Review System for the Scienti‚c Evaluation of Health Claims in USA2 (FDA), the draft Standard on Nutrition, Health, and Related Claims in Australia and New Zealand (FSANZ Proposal P293, 2009), the Regulation of the European Union on Nutrition and Health Claims made on Food (Regulation 1924/2006), and the FAO report on Functional Foods.3 Although the ruling terms may fall out of this review’s scope, the criteria that they propose in order to accept and approve these claims, including safety issues (see below), have a direct incidence in the procedures for their selection.4−7
27.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 607 27.1.1 Gut Microbiota ................................................................................................................ 609 27.1.2 Recognition of Bacteria by the Mucosa ...........................................................................610 27.1.3 Secreted Signaling Molecules Used As Markers .............................................................611
