Intestinal microbiota interacts with other systems, especially the immune system, which is responsible for protecting the body by recognizing “stranger” (pathogen associated molecular patterns-PAMPs) and “danger” (damage-associated molecular patterns-DAMPs) molecular motifs. In this manner, it plays an important role in the pathogenesis of various diseases and health. Despite the use of probiotics that modulate the intestinal microbiota in providing health benefits and in the treatment of diseases, there are some possible concerns about the possibility of developing adverse effects, especially in people with suppressed immune systems. Since probiotics provide health benefits with bioactive compounds, studies are carried out on the use of products containing non-living probiotic microorganisms (paraprobiotics) and/or their metabolites (postbiotics) instead of probiotic products. It is even reported that these microbial compounds have more immunomodulatory activities than living microorganisms via some possible mechanism and eliminates some disadvantages of probiotics. Considering the increasing use of functional foods in health and disease, further studies are needed with respect to the benefits and advantages of parabiotic and/or postbiotic use in the food and pharmaceutical industry as well as immune system modulation. Although probiotics have been extensive studied for a long time, it seems that postbiotics are promising tools for future research and applications according to the recent literature. This review aimed to evaluate the interaction of probiotics and postbiotics with the immune systems and also their advantages and disadvantages in the area of food-pharmaceutical industry and immune system modulation.

In recent years, the positive effects of organic foods on health and the fact that they are considered to have more nutritional value have an important place among the various reasons why these foods are preferred by consumers compared to conventional foods. According to studies investigating the nutritional value and health effects of organic and conventional foods, it is known that organic and conventional foods do not have significant differences in terms of nutritional value, but pesticides and other residues used in the production of conventional foods have negative effects on health. When the results of studies comparing the effects of pesticide levels—antibiotic ratio, heavy metal, mycotoxin, nitrate and nitrite content of organic and conventional foods—on human health are examined, it has been seen that organic foods are more effective in terms of health protection and improvement compared to conventional foods. Due to the insufficiency of the existing studies, it cannot be concluded that organic foods have more beneficial effects on health than conventional foods. For this reason, further studies are needed on this subject. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->

The notion that organic products exhibit superior health benefits compared to conventionally grown products, coupled with ecological and environmental apprehensions, has led to heightened consumer interest in organic products. Over the past few years, there has been a surge in the market share of organic agriculture due to growing interest in this field. The surge in consumer demand for organic products has given rise to concerns regarding product reliability. Consequently, consumers require certain indicators to ascertain the authenticity of organic products. The reliability of organic products is impacted by a multitude of factors, including but not restricted to labeling, certification and packaging. In this part of the book, which sheds light on all aspects of organic food production, the certification and labeling processes of organic products in European countries and the regulations in this field will be discussed. <!----> <!----> <!----> <!---->