Functional fermented foods and starters cultures

Abstract

This special issue (SI) compiled 8 review articles and 8 original manuscripts dealing with various functional fermented foods and starter cultures. Functional foods are defined as those “natural or industrially processed foods that, when consumed regularly within a diverse diet at effective levels, have potentially positive effects on health beyond basic nutrition”, while functional starter cultures are “those that possess at least one inherent functional property, which may contribute to food security and/or offer one or more organoleptic, technological, nutritional or health advantages". In this SI, traditional (Indian) and non-traditional fermented foods and beverages of dairy- (fermented milk, cheese), water-based- (water kefir), meat- (sausages), vegetables- (cocoa beans, soybeans and chickpeas), and sourdough-origin with novel aspects and applications are presented. In addition, studies on the probiotic (anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, improved digestibility, and production of GABA, vitamins and bacteriocins) or technologically interesting (flavor formation, natural pigments, exopolysaccharides) properties of a broad class of microorganisms, such as the well-known lactic acid bacteria, Bacillus, yeasts and fungi, are included. Hoping to serve a wide audience eager to learn about emerging topics in applied microbiology, we express our gratitude to all the authors who kindly contributed their high-quality science and made this SI possible.