Functional Foods and Active Natural Products

Dear Colleagues,

Functional foods enriched with bioactive compounds are a rapidly advancing area of food and nutrition science. Established fortification agents such as carotenoids, phytosterols and stanols, omega-3, and other fatty acids, proteins and peptides, fibers and prebiotics, probiotics, vitamins, coenzymes, and minerals already demonstrate well-documented benefits for health promotion and disease prevention. At the same time, novel and emerging bioactives are reshaping the functional food space. These include marine- and aquatic-derived metabolites (e.g., algal compounds, peptides, sulfated polysaccharides), rare or non-canonical plant phytochemicals (flavonoids, glucosinolates, phytoalexins, small RNAs), and precision fermentation or synthetic biology products (engineered enzymes, microbial pigments, human-identical molecules). Advances in delivery technologies such as encapsulation, nanostructured carriers, pickering emulsions, postbiotics, and microbiome-directed metabolites further enhance bioavailability, stability, and targeted action.

Dr. Haralabos Christos Karantonis
Guest Editor

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