First face-to-face WG3 meeting was held in Belgrade on the 23th-25th of May 2022.
The first workshop of the WP3 took place in Belgrade, Serbia, on 23th-25th of May 2022 and was organized by Marko Stojanović, from the University of Belgrade. The aim of the workshop, attended by the co-leaders of the WP3 working groups, was to select the EFSA and Satellite projects that will be worked out by WP3 until October 2024. The workshop started with presentations by Drs. Guy Vergères, Agroscope (Health benefits and risks of fermented foods – Using the structure of EFSA dossiers in PIMENTO WP3), Reinhard Ackerl, European Food Safety Authority EFSA (The scientific evaluation of health claims and novel foods at EFSA), and Seppo Salminen, University of Turku (Background on health claims, novel foods and EFSA assessment procedures) that were open to all PIMENTO members via Zoom. The remaining of the meeting was devoted to the sorting, prioritizing, and synthesis of the 119 projects (74 EFSA, 45 Satellite) that were proposed by the 153 WP3 members organized in 12 groups from December 2021 to Mai 2022.
The output of the Belgrade workshop was a set of seven EFSA projects (E1-E7) and nine Satellite projects (S1-S9) that will now be developed until October 2024 by 16 working groups of WP3:
- EFSA projects: Fermented foods and gastrointestinal symptoms (E1); Fermented foods and food allergies (E2); Fermented foods and immunity (E3); Fermented foods and type 2 diabetes (E4); Fermented foods and cardiovascular diseases (E5); Fermented foods and bone health (E6); Fermented foods and neurological disorders (E7)
- Satellite projects: Cataloguing bioactive compounds in fermented foods (S1); Fermented foods for the production of vitamins (S2); Fermented foods and nutrients bioavailability and bioaccessibility (S3); Health benefits of orphan fermented foods (S4); Fermented foods as part of healthy diets (S5); Fermented foods in personalized nutrition (S6); Improving food safety by fermentation (S7); Safety and functionality of novel fermented foods (S8); Functional valorization of food byproducts by fermentation (S9).
PIMENTO thanks Marko Stojanović and the University of Belgrade for the organization of the workshop. The workshop was not only efficient scientifically but also allowed the members of the WP3 leading team to better know each other in the very nice settings of the conference hotel as well as the streets and restaurants of Belgrade.