ISGP Podcast: Oration on Fermentation

Fermenting foods might be a culinary fad, but could it also be a key to food and nutritional security of the future? Lactic acid bacteria  are the most widely studied microorganisms for food biopreservation.  This bacteria play a particularly critical role in the preservation and microbial safety of fermentable foods. As world population increases, the use of improved lactic acid bacteria strains in industrial food fermentation is expected to have a large economic impact that attracts increasing commercial interest in preserving fresh vegetables, fruits, and a broad variety of food items for feeding populations, especially in developing countries. Debaters dive into the health and food safety benefits of fermentation in their discussion with Dr. Linda Duffy, Health Scientist Administrator and Program Director of the Mechanistic Branch, at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health of the National Institutes of Health.  Dr. Duffy's paper, Microbial Food Fermentation: Enhancing Nutritional Fitness, was cowritten by Dr. Van Hubbard, of the National Institutes of Health, and Dr. Pamela Starke-Reed, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This policy position paper was considered during the ISGP conference, Food Security and Diet-Linked Public-Health Challenges, convened September 20-23, 2015 in Fargo, North Dakota. For more podcasts, visit ISGP's The Forum.