ABSTRACT
The scientifi c understanding of the probiotic concept has come a long way, since it was fi rst conceived over a hundred years ago by Elie Metchnikoff in his insightful book, ‘The Prolongation of Life’ (Metchnikoff and Mitchell 1907). However, there is still a signifi cant way to go before the association of specifi c probiotic health benefi ts with specifi c strains of bacteria can be fully scientifi cally proven. While many researchers believe this association is already scientifi cally established for a number of probiotic strains, the current failure of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to approve any probiotic health claim for even the most highly studied strains suggests a better understanding of both the probiotic strain and the mechanism of action for its health benefi t is needed. This is substantiated by the frequent use of the term ‘inadequate strain characterization’ by EFSA when rejecting many of these petitions. Genomics holds tremendous promise to address much of the scientifi c shortfall in probiotic understanding, especially characterization of probiotic strains, and many believe that it will provide the necessary scientifi c understanding to obtain probiotic strains with the highest effi cacy for health claims such that regulatory approval will not be
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, Microbial and Plant Genomics Institute, University of Minnesota, 1500 Gortner Ave., St. Paul, MN 55108, USA.
