Public Health Policies and Fermented Food Consumption

Fermented foods have always enjoyed a special social-economic niche in the global gastronomic genre. In past decades the consumption trends of this food group have been on the rise, worldwide. Meanwhile, several clinical evidences have emerged on the potential of fermented food to mitigate cognitive disorders, cardiovascular conditions, and metabolic syndrome. Fermented foods have been reported to synthesize substances with immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties, offering substantial advantages in combating metabolic disorders. However, explicit Government recommendations on the consumption of fermented foods as dietary guidelines, in the face of several studies about the health benefits, have still not been established. In this chapter, the authors present a discussion that may, in the future, support new public policies aimed at promoting health through regularly ingesting fermented foods.