Seppo Salminen

Professor Seppo Salminen received, his MS degree in Food Science and Nutrition from Washington State University, USA, his MSc degree in Food Chemistry and Microbiology from University of Helsinki, Finland and, his Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry and Toxicology from the University of Surrey, United Kingdom. He did his post-doctoral training in Food Toxicology and RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia where he has been a visiting professor for several periods since 1990. Dr Salminen worked as a research/senior scientist at the National Board of Health and then Ministry of Agriculture in Helsinki, Finland. He then served as a nutrition specialist at the Research Centre of Valio Ltd before joining the University of Turku as associate professor of food chemistry, then professor of Food Development and the Health Biosciences Program and later Director of the Functional Foods Forum, Faculty of Medicine.

His research has focused on gut microbiology and health, probiotics and prebiotics and functional foods. Since the establishment of the European Food Safety Authority he served as a member of the NDA panel for 9 years and another 3 years as a member of the Novel Foods working group. He has been a visiting professor and faculty member at the Australian Key Centre for Toxicology and the BOKU University in Vienna, Austria. He has been given an honorary doctorate from the University of Tartu, Estonia and he is a member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. He received several prizes, among others the Swiss Price of Modern Nutrition and the IDF Institute Pasteur Elie Metchnikoff Prize. He is also President of the International Society of Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), 2018-2021. He is an author of over 400 scientific peer reviewed publications and several books.