Probiotics Empowering the Future of Beverages
A special issue of Beverages (ISSN 2306-5710).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2026
Special Issue Editors
Interests: functional foods; phytochemicals and antioxidant properties of edible flowers
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: dairy science and technology
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
In recent years, the integration of probiotics into beverages has evolved from a niche health trend into a dynamic and rapidly expanding sector within the global food and drink industry. As consumer interest in functional foods continues to grow, probiotic-enriched beverages are emerging as a key innovation frontier, offering both health benefits and market differentiation.
This Special Issue seeks to explore the transformative role of probiotics in shaping the next generation of beverages. Specifically, it will examine the impact of probiotics on the physicochemical, textural, and sensory characteristics of various beverage matrices, as well as their contribution to nutrition, promoting gut health, immunity, and metabolic function.
Probiotic beverages now span a wide range of substrates and formats, including dairy-based drinks (e.g., kefir, yogurt drinks), non-dairy plant-based alternatives (e.g., oat, soy, and almond milks), fermented teas (e.g., kombucha), fruit and vegetable juices, herbal infusions, cereal-based drinks, and even alcoholic beverages like probiotic beer and wine. These diverse matrices pose unique opportunities and technological challenges for ensuring probiotic viability, sensory appeal, and health efficacy.
This Special Issue invites interdisciplinary contributions (original research and reviews) that explore the scientific, technological, regulatory, and market-driven aspects of probiotic beverage development, and highlight advances and challenges in this evolving field.
Dr. Panagiotis Kandylis
Dr. Dimitra Dimitrellou
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Beverages is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- probiotic beverages
- functional beverages
- dairy-based probiotics
- plant-based beverages
- fermented beverages
- beverage matrices
- probiotic viability
- sensory characteristics
- gut health
- market innovation
- interdisciplinary research
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