Education

One of the main areas of work of the Institute for Probiotics and Functional foods is education and raising awareness of professional and lay public. Employees of the Institute are organizing expert meetings in the field of interest of probiotics, prebiotics and functional food sector, and they participate with their works in those fields at many professional conferences and trainings held by various professional associations.

Research in the field has shown that despite numerous scientific findings about the crucial role of microorganisms that live in our bodies, especially in the gastrointestinal tract, and despite the evidence of practical possibilities probiotics and prebiotics represent in the consolidation of health, disease prevention and treatment, there is a lot of doubt and mistrust among the lay public as well as among the experts in various fields (medical, pharmaceutical, food). Therefore, the Institute began in 2012 with the Slovenian campaign to raise awareness of professional and lay public about probiotics and prebiotics.

Key objectives of the campaign:

  1. To overcome the scepticism whether prebiotics and probiotics are scientifically proven to be effective in strengthening the health and treatment of certain diseases with evidence.
  2. To educate the target audiences, what are the characteristics of quality probiotics and prebiotics.
  3. To educate the target audiences that the effects of probiotics and prebiotics are specific, i.e. bound to a specific type of prebiotic oligosaccharides or probiotic bacterial strains.
  4. To inform the target audiences that there is no such thing as a universal prebiotic and probiotic, and that for every indication a proper probiotic or prebiotic should be chosen based on scientifically proven effectiveness.
  5. To inform the target public which specific probiotics and prebiotics have been scientifically proven to be effective for each indication.

The Institute for Probiotics and Functional foods organizes a number of events, which represent a major step forward to the understanding of probiotics and prebiotics and their scientifically proven health effects.