Outputs: 

1) Publication of the findings from the Survey on the Status and Challenges of Probiotics Testing and NGS Application: One online questionnaire and two to three online focus group discussions will be conducted to collect information on the methods used by food testing labs from different economies in the testing of probiotics products, challenges in the testing and capacity of food testing labs to apply NGS technology. An initial questionnaire will be sent to the related governmental agencies on food testing of all the APEC economies and also other non-APEC economies, with a special focus on developing economies.

We will also seek information from the related food authorities to invite their domestic labs, commercial labs and industry labs to take part in this questionnaire survey to map the current status of probiotics testing methods, parameters and technologies used. This will then lead to the focus group discussion to identify challenges, limiting factors and opportunities for NGS application in probiotics testing in lab.

This survey will be conducted by the PO, collaborators, Food Safety and Quality Department (Ministry of Health Malaysia) and the expert committee established under this program. The seeking of information and write up document will be written by a contractor supervised by PO.

The findings from the survey will be published on APEC Publications website as well as shared openly and disseminated through the network of AOAC, USFDA and the participants of the three-days capacity building workshop.

2) Handbook of Best Practice Guidelines of NGS Application in Probiotic Product Testing: An expert committee consisting of experts on NGS, bioinformatics, probiotics and microbiology, food safety and quality testing will be formed to develop a handbook of best practice guidelines of how NGS could be applied to verify probiotic strains, detect contamination, and determine viability for the purpose of standardizing NGS lab protocols for probiotics testing.

    The handbook will be developed by taking into consideration of the information and data collected in the survey conducted to provide recommendations to economies with limited resources on step-by-step basic setup of platform for NGS analysis in the lab. The meetings and discussion will be conducted via online platform. The recommended guidelines and methods detailed in the handbook will be used for the three-day capacity building workshop.

The final handbook will be shared openly online and disseminated through the network of AOAC, USFDA and the participants of the three-days capacity building workshop.

The rough contents of the handbook include table of content (1 page), introduction (2 pages), objectives (1 page), approaches of probiotics testing (2-3 pages), Application of NGS in probiotics testing (5 pages), best practices and guidelines (3-5 pages), basic requirement and setup (2-3 pages), Bioinformatics and data analysis (2-3 pages), reporting (1 page), limitations (1 page).

3) Three-day Capacity Building Workshop: A 3-day capacity-building workshop will be conducted in April 2023 in University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with an aim to share knowledge and hands-on skills on NGS and probiotics testing, to communicate the best practice guidelines of NGS application in probiotic product testing developed in this program and also to provide a platform to network and kick-start conversation on cross-border collaboration and support to increase lab capacity in NGS application in probiotics testing as well as to establish standardize method across labs for probiotics testing with NGS platform that allow lab-to-lab comparison.

Approximately 35-45 participants (2 from each APEC economies) will be invited to join this workshop. The participants are lab personnel that may be from domestic labs, commercial labs, industry labs, academic labs that provide food testing including probiotics testing. The trainers and speakers will be identified from the expert groups by the committee.

The rough agenda with tentative topics of the workshop is as follows:

4) An Online Platform for Networking and Knowledge Sharing: A standalone forum satellite website (build outside the APEC website) will be developed, hosted and maintained by the University of Malaya to share all the information generated from this program, including the reports, handbook on best practice guidelines, lab protocols and parameters on probiotics testing with NGS platforms, etc.

This online platform will carry a forum function that allows networking among labs, researchers and experts from APEC and non-APEC economies to share methods, and best practices that will lead to more initiatives in the future.

The targeted audience are lab professionals and researchers who conduct or interested in probiotic testing. University of Malaya will host and maintain the website for 3 years and could be transferred to other potential strategic partner/ institution/ organization for hosting and maintenance.

5)  Final Summary Report: A final summary report, following the APEC publication guidelines of no less than 30 pages with relevant information present and discuss in the webinars, focus group discussion, and workshop along with the key conclusions, as well as the survey research findings, pre- and post-survey results will be included. The report will be made available to all APEC economies in the APEC publication website.

The final report will include: table of contents (1 page); executive summary (1-2 pages); Introduction and background of the project (2-3 pages); Aims and objectives (1 page); research findings on the current state of probiotic testing (5 pages); best practices and recommendations (5-6 pages); capacity building workshop (3-5 pages); Opportunities and way forward (1 page); pre- and post-event survey (2 pages).

6) Training Protocols: The training protocols (with lecture notes, hands-on lab practical instructions sheet and information) will be included as an independent output of this project for sharing with the participants of the workshop.

Outcomes: The implementation of this project is expected to yield the following direct and indirect outcomes:

1)  Best practice guidelines for probiotics testing with NGS technology is identified and transferred; and this will serve as the base for future continuous improvement and modification to enhance the efficiency of probiotics lab testing.

2) Knowledge and lab skills in NGS application for probiotics testing among lab personnel from APEC economies are improved and enhanced.

3) Initiate and kickstart efforts to standardize lab methods/ protocols for probiotics testing with NGS platform to facilitate lab-to-lab comparison, food import and export (regulation purpose), and surveillance activities for consumer health and safety.

4) Increase the cooperation and collaboration network between labs, standard body and policy-makers in the APEC Economies to enhance testing efficiency of probiotics products and so to improve safety and quality of the probiotic products to consumers.

Beneficiaries: In the first phase, various experts on NGS, bioinformatics, probiotics and microbiology, food safety and quality testing (researchers in the related field, standard body such as AOAC), experienced lab personnel from the domestic labs, commercial labs, industry and food safety authorities from both APEC and non-APEC economies will be invited to participate in this project as the expert committee.

In the second phase, the capability building workshop will be participated by the laboratory personnel and researchers (preferably 1 from frontline and 1 from managerial level with microbiology or molecular biology background, with at least 1 year lab experience) who are from the domestic labs, commercial labs and industry from APEC economies, with a particular emphasis on the lab personnel from the developing economies (Viet Nam; Thailand; Indonesia; Brunei Darussalam; the Philippines; Papua New Guinea; Peru; Mexico and Chile). At least 2 participants from each APEC economies will be invited to join this 3-days capacity building workshop in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Women are also set to benefit from this project as APEC traveling eligible economies are strongly encouraged to nominate one female participant each. The channels used to reach out these different targets will be specified via invitation to their national contact points (food safety or public health governmental agencies/ ministry). Other APEC or international fora such as AOAC, FDA, FAO, ILSI may also be used to identify and to reach the target participants.