Fermented Foods & Ingestible Microbes

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Microbial activity has shaped human diets for generations. Fermentation can transform ingredients and sensory properties, while the presence of living organisms introduces different questions about identity, conditions and safety.

Questions we explore

We explore fermented dairy, vegetables, grains and other food preparations, edible microbial cultures and their metabolic products. How do processing conditions change the resulting material? What is known about viability, exposure and interactions with food matrices?

Emerging possibilities

Fermented foods, products containing live cultures and products with demonstrated probiotic effects are not interchangeable categories. We distinguish established evidence from promising mechanisms and untested health claims.