Probiotics for human health –new innovations and emerging trends

Probiotics constitute the new buzz word in human dietary portfolio and are currently the major focus of attention across the world including India and other developing counties due to their enormous health potentials. Our understanding of the functionality of human gut microbiota and increasing use of probiotic organisms specifically lactobacilli and bifidobacteria as functional microbial dietary ingredients for promoting human health have made considerable impact on the consumers. As s result of recent advancements in the science of probiotics in terms of efficacy, mode of action, probiotic- gut microbiota-host interactions at molecular level with the help of high through put sequencing techniques and nutrigenomics, the application of probiotics offers an innovative approach for development of novel probiotic formulations under the category of functional foods for the management of specific diseases particularly chronic inflammatory gastrointestinal disorders and other medical conditions. However, specific health claims associated with probiotics/ probiotic food formulations and their safety through scientific evidence based clinical studies in the target human population remain a real challenge to establish the credibility of their health promoting functions. Nonetheless, this limitation does not undermine the immense power of probiotics to promote human health and confer protection against diseases besides introducing lot of value to the foods from nutritional perspectives. In view of the significant impact, these invaluable food-grade microbial-ingredients are likely to make on nutritional well being and public health, it was considered highly appropriate to do some brain storming on the most critical emerging issues. Some of the pertinent issues related to probiotic functionality which need immediate attention for in depth discussions at an open platform include efficacy and safety of probiotics, establishing their health claims against specific diseases in the