His research deals with (spontaneous) food fermentation processes, among which sourdough. He was promotor of 37 PhD theses and currently supervises 18 PhD students. He is author of more than 300 international peer-reviewed papers, 39 book chapters, and more than 370 communications worldwide. His work counts more than 13,000 citations and he has an h-index of 62. He is ranked among the Thomson Reuters highly cited researchers and the world's most scientific influential minds (top 1 % researchers) since 2014. Since 2015, he is member of the University Board of the VUB and vice-dean of the Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences.