Safety Assessment Systems for Microbial Starters Derived from Fermented Foods

Microorganisms involved in food fermentation not only improve the aroma and taste of the food, but also enhance its preservation. Thus, they are added as starter cultures to boost the final product quality of commercial fermented foods. Although these microorganisms originate from fermented foods and have a long history of consumption, the European Union recently applied the concept of Qualified presumption of Safety (QPS), which is a safety evaluation system for microorganisms used in food or feed in Europe. The QPS system is a species-level safety system and shares results with the European Novel Food System, a strain-level safety evaluation system. In the United States, microorganisms added to fermented foods are considered as food additives or Generally Recognized as Safe substance. In Korea, food microbe lists are presented at the species level. Moreover, the nation has established a strain-oriented evaluation system that applies temporary safety evaluation methods for food raw materials as well as new raw materials. However, when it comes to microorganisms isolated from traditional fermented foods and other fermented food products, there is no definition of the term “species,” and there is a lack of an evaluation system at the species level. Therefore, such an evaluation system for microbial species used in Korean fermented foods is necessary.