Safety demonstration of food and feed cultures

Fermented foods have been consumed for more than 10 000 years, making food fermentation\r\nprobably one of the oldest food technologies implemented by man. Presently, fermented food\r\nproducts are estimated to represent a third of our food intake.\r\nThe scientific knowledge behind its role and mechanisms of action have only been studied in the\r\npast 150 years. Food microbiology has provided many answers behind the roles, modes of action,\r\nnutrition, and health effects of fermented foods. Nevertheless, one of the major topics of concern\r\nremains the safety demonstration of microbial food cultures. Despite this very long history of\r\ntraditional use, what is considered fermented in a part of the world is considered spoiled, if not\r\nunsafe, in another one. As an example, in late 2017, China blocked the importation of cheeses from\r\nEurope due to the presence of microbial food cultures not present in the Chinese 2010 positive list:\r\nPenicillium roquefortii, Penicillium camemberti, and the presence in their genomes of mycotoxin\r\ngenes. This is not unheard of per se, as the Biohazard Panel of the European Food Safety Authority\r\nhas excluded filamentous fungi from the Qualified Presumption of Safety. The United States\r\n(GRAS!– Generally Recognized as Safe) also has a respective procedure in place for the microbial\r\nrisk assessment of microbial species voluntarily added to the food chain. The International Dairy\r\nFederation (IDF), in collaboration with the European Food and Feed Cultures Association, has\r\nbeen working for the past 20 years on an inventory of microbial species with technological properties\r\nin fermented foods.\r\nSafety demonstration of food and feed cultures through inoculation into a food matrix for use in\r\nthe food chain is aimed to avoid trade barriers between countries when a history of safe use cannot\r\nbe established for an indigenous fermented food product on the international market. It is as well\r\nimportant to avoid the pitfalls of cross- over fermentation, when changing the traditional food\r\nmatrix, and when possible, to also avoid deleterious microbial metabolic activities.