Nutrition and Health of Fermented Foods—4th Edition

A special issue of Fermentation (ISSN 2311-5637). This special issue belongs to the section "Fermentation for Food and Beverages".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 376

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Tea Plant Biology and Utilization, School of Tea and Food Science and Technology, Anhui Agricultural University, Hefei, China
Interests: fermented foods; fuzhuan brick tea; human health safety; gut microbiota; metabolic syndrome
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Guest Editor
Institute of Agro-Product Processing, Jiangsu Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Nanjing 210014, China
Interests: fermented foods; nutrients; carotenoids; gut microbiota; polysaccharides; friuts and vegetables
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

A definition for fermented foods was developed in September 2019 by an expert panel convened by the International Scientific Association for Probiotics and Prebiotics (ISAPP), which defined fermented foods and beverages as “foods made through desired microbial growth and enzymatic conversions of food components”. Fermented foods have long been an important part of the human diet for thousands of years in nearly every culture on every continent. Fermented foods provide important and stable sources of human nutrients, such as proteins, vitamins, and minerals.

Currently, fermented foods are attracting increased attention among biologists, nutritionists, technologists, clinicians, and consumers, and numerous encouraging findings about the health-beneficial effects of fermented foods have been extensively obtained, such as anti-inflammatory, anti-allergenic, anti-diabetic, anti-carcinogenic, and anti-hypertensive activities. However, there are still some remaining challenges regarding the “nutrition and health of fermented foods” that need to be explored.

Thus, this Special Issue of Fermentation focuses on the interaction between fermented foods and our health, and it is expected that this Special Issue could substantially expand our knowledge of the health-promoting functions of fermented foods and further stimulate future research. Accordingly, this Special Issue welcomes experts working in the field to submit original experimental studies, and reviews that cover state-of-the-art advances in this important area.

This Special Issue will highlight the most recent advances in, but not limited to, the following subjects:

  • Characterization and potential health-beneficial effects of fermented foods;
  • Changes in physicochemical and biological properties during fermentation;
  • Extraction, identification, and bioactivities of bioactive compounds from fermented foods;
  • Metabolic characteristics and biotransformation of fermented foods in the digestive system;
  • Innovative fermentation approaches to improve the nutrition and health of fermented foods;
  • Modulation of gut microbiota by fermented foods;
  • The potential risk of fermented foods on health.

Prof. Dr. Guijie Chen
Dr. Zhuqing Dai
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. Fermentation is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly 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 2100 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

  • fermented foods
  • nutrition and health
  • innovative fermentation approaches
  • multi-omics techniques
  • fermentation process
  • metabolic characteristics and biotransformation
  • molecular mechanisms
  • potential risk
  • prebiotic activity

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 985 KiB  
Article
Exploring Volatile Profiles in Cactus-Based Fermented Beverages: Effects of Fermentation Method
by César Ojeda-Linares, Alejandro Casas, Patricia Severiano-Pérez, Marcela Sandoval-Velasco, Yolanda M. García-Rodríguez and Francisco J. Espinosa-García
Fermentation 2025, 11(5), 275; https://doi.org/10.3390/fermentation11050275 - 12 May 2025
Viewed by 201
Abstract
Mexico is home to a rich variety of fermented beverages made from both wild and domesticated plant species. Fermentation practices vary, with producers using either wild or inoculated techniques to obtain culturally valued final products. It is generally assumed that wild fermentations yield [...] Read more.
Mexico is home to a rich variety of fermented beverages made from both wild and domesticated plant species. Fermentation practices vary, with producers using either wild or inoculated techniques to obtain culturally valued final products. It is generally assumed that wild fermentations yield a greater diversity of volatile compounds compared to inoculated fermentations, as the latter tend to reduce microbial diversity throughout the process. However, this pattern remains largely unexplored in relation to the volatile profiles of traditionally fermented cactus-based beverages. Despite this assumption, comparative studies examining these profiles across different fermentation methods are scarce, especially given that these beverages are not produced under standardized conditions. To investigate this, we used GC-MS to characterize the aroma profile of colonche, a traditional fermented beverage made primarily from Opuntia streptacantha fruits. Colonche is produced by both wild and inoculated fermentation methods. In addition, a rapid sensory evaluation using the modified Flash Profile (mFP) technique was performed to evaluate flavor differences between the fermentation methods. A total of 55 volatile compounds were identified, with wild fermentations showing greater diversity (55) than inoculated fermentations (50). Most compounds overlapped, but five were unique to spontaneous fermentations, contributing to distinct sensory profiles. The mFP results also indicate that sensory attributes vary by fermentation type, with wild fermentations being more strongly associated with positive descriptors such as taste and smell, while inoculated samples have a distinctly pungent aftertaste. These findings highlight colonche not only as a reservoir of microbial diversity in arid regions but also as a culturally significant beverage with complex sensory attributes. Recognizing and preserving these attributes is essential for safeguarding traditional foodscapes. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nutrition and Health of Fermented Foods—4th Edition)
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